Almost half of the Russian medical workers surveyed know colleagues with fake documents on the assignment of a qualification category, a survey of the Aktion Medicine service showed. According to Kommersant, such documents increase the professional status and, accordingly, increase the chances of finding a job or receiving additional payments.
43% of respondents admitted that they know colleagues who use fake certificates of qualification. 457 people took part in the survey. Experts believe that this sample is not very representative. For example, Larisa Popovich, director of the Institute for Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics, agrees that some doctors do have fake certificates, but “not in the percentage” that the survey showed. In her opinion, in order to accurately assess the situation, a larger study with a larger number of participants is needed.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health states that there are only isolated cases of falsification of extracts from orders for the assignment of a qualification category, and they were the basis for initiating criminal cases.