Treatment is free...

So, we were promised to maintain free healthcare. Are you happy? I don't.

I explain my mood: the point is not to maintain free medicine at SUCH a level, but only to change it, the emergence of wide possibilities, new equipment, advanced training of doctors and nurses, etc. etc. Everyone will extend this list.

But no one is talking about increasing the level of our native free medicine. And if it does...

You can draw anything on foggy glass. But the glass will dry, and there will be no trace of the drawing left.

Fresh example.

In September I had to reluctantly agree to be hospitalized. The clinic is good, a day hospital, and most importantly - free! That's how they seduced me. I gave up.

I came there to donate blood, as expected. And away we go... Dear Mom! One sister injected me into a vein and announced that it was empty and that I was not bleeding. There really wasn't any blood coming out. Why? And why is it empty? Why? I was surprised.

But sister Lena did not answer my stupid questions, in her opinion, and without further ado sent me to the first floor to look for a certain Galina Grigorievna, who is highly experienced and can handle any veins. I went without complaint.

I found the highly experienced one with difficulty, and only with the help of the department head brought her upstairs. She, too, was unable to take blood from the vein at the elbow, so she inserted a needle there and pulled it out. There is no blood in me! They drank all the blood! And she began to stab me in the wrist for the third time. The pain was such that I wanted to scream at the entire clinic. I could barely restrain myself and clenched my teeth. And the needle... For the elephant. They couldn’t take the “butterfly”. Or she wasn't there. It happens too.

Then I explained to the nurse that exactly two weeks ago at Invitro they took my blood in one go, and the blood flowed there, and no empty veins were found, and I didn’t feel anything at all. To which the experienced woman said:

- There are some miracle workers working there! In this “Invitro”!

They apparently still work at Litech, in the 21st Century laboratory, at the clinic of the Petrovsky Scientific Clinical Center, in the laboratory of the Vasilenko Clinic... There they always took my blood quite easily and in one go. But - for money. There is a concept of prestige, which cannot be dropped: the people will not go. And there doctors and nurses receive different salaries, higher than in public clinics. This is understandable. But only for qualifications. How could it be otherwise?

Later it turned out that the highly experienced one hit my nerve - that’s why it hurt so much! A day later, my thumb became numb, my hand hurt, it didn’t move well, I had to go to a neurologist. He said that everything would pass, but not soon - a month or a month and a half. So my hand hurts, goes numb... Waits for a month to pass.

I left the hospital. I gave up on treatment. And now I’m solving a very simple problem: what’s better - to be injured for free or to pay for normal medical care?

Although the task is not as simple as it seems at first glance. You can still pay for a blood test without going broke. What if there is a serious operation? “Where is the money, Zin?..” But this is no longer a question. The question is: to live or not to live. And how to live: in pain or calmly. Standard of living, as doctors say.

And we can’t afford free healthcare in its current form either: we can’t afford health.

My two friends, former classmates, have coxarthrosis. Both can barely walk, practically crawl with sticks, the pain is terrible. Both were put on a waiting list at clinics for operations: one in Moscow, the other in St. Petersburg. How long you need to wait is unknown. Because it's free. And they still have surgery on the second joint ahead, because both legs hurt. For money, they will admit you tomorrow and operate on you. Your choice?

Choice... We have the most valuable thing at stake - our lives and health. The game started without rules. Either pay, or... There is no alternative. And no one cares about us either.

And the free medicine that was promised to us... You can draw anything on the foggy glass. And her, free...