The story of "Vesti Nedeli" about the "restoration of peaceful life" in the occupied regions of Ukraine says :
“Kherson region now is a clear example of the fact that Ukraine, over the thirty years of its independence, has learned well only to destroy what it inherited from the Soviet Union.
Now there will be no problems with the supply of sera against tetanus, diphtheria and botulism. Residents of the region will be able to apply for free medical care at any time of the day. Kherson doctors are switching to the Russian healthcare organization system. They say that the system for allocating money to medical institutions in Ukraine was complicated, because of this, many hospitals and polyclinics had to be closed.
Medical care for residents of Ukraine has been and remains free. In May 2022, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine published an explanation on how to get medical care during the war. It says :
“Medical care in a hospital of any hospital that has an appropriate agreement with the National Health Service of Ukraine is free of charge for Ukrainians.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many citizens have been forced to change their place of residence. At the same time, the Ministry of Health reminds that care in a hospital is provided free of charge, regardless of where patients live and which institution they decide to choose for hospitalization. The entire scope of medical and related services provided for in the package of medical services is guaranteed, and patients do not have to pay extra for anything. In particular, the package covers all areas necessary for patients: cardiology, neurology, infectious diseases, pulmonology, gastroenterology, pediatrics, and so on.
If a medical institution requires funds from a patient, this is a violation. In such situations, a complaint should be filed.
No problems with the sera mentioned in the Vesti Nedeli story, as well as with vaccines against these diseases, were reported in the Kherson region. In 2019, the Ukrainian media wrote , for example, that a centralized stock of anti-diphtheria serum had been created in the country.
The number of medical institutions in Ukraine has indeed decreased since Soviet times, but this only applies to hospitals. The number of clinics has grown significantly.
And about the decrease in the number of hospitals and hospital beds, the Ukrainian publication Zerkalo Nedeli wrote in 2020:
“The essence of the Soviet health care system is well explained by the semantics of the word “hospital”. In Russian, “hospital” indicates the place where the sick are, and in Ukrainian, “likarnya” indicates the place where they “rejoice”. We inherited precisely the “hospitals” – the gigantic health care system named after Semashko. At one time (in the 1950s), she solved the issue of access to medical care. It should be said that the system coped with this task: hospitals appeared in every regional center, and sometimes even in villages and towns. But is this system capable of delivering aid in the 21st century?
In 1991, at the time of the declaration of Independence, there were about 3,900 healthcare institutions in Ukraine, in which there were a total of 700,000 hospital beds, which is about 135 beds per 10,000 people. In 2017, there were 1,700 hospitals left (excluding the corresponding institutions in Crimea and ORDLO), and they have 309,000 beds (73 beds per 10,000 people).
A paradoxical, at first glance, situation is emerging: the number of beds is decreasing, and the average life expectancy is growing. It turns out that the walls do not heal?
No, walls don't heal. In the UK with a population of 66.5 million as of September 2019, according to the NHS, only about 1,250 hospitals (including private ones) were operating. This number of hospitals accounted for 141,000 hospital beds (excluding private beds). If this figure is adjusted to the population norm, then there are 21.2 hospital beds per 10,000 Britons. Against 73 beds in Ukraine. It is logical to conclude that it is not walls and hospitals that heal, but people and technology.”
In Russia, the number of hospitals has also decreased, but at the same time, such an impressive increase in the number of polyclinics as in Ukraine is not visible. Here is the data from the official publication of Rosstat "Health in Russia" for 2021:
As you can see, the situation with medical care in rural areas is especially unfavorable. So, apparently, the inhabitants of the areas occupied by Russia did not receive any significant improvements in health care.
