The country of the victorious State Drug Control Service. Afterword

Suddenly I had to return to posts from a month ago (see here , here and here ).

At the initiative of the members of the “Opinions on Healthcare” group - doctors and journalists writing about healthcare - preparations were initiated for a round table on the availability of narcotic drugs for pain relief in Russia. A solid lineup of participants was announced, including representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Federal Drug Control Service. The organizers could not help but be surprised at the success - for once, for the first time, a frank conversation between doctors dealing with pain management problems (anesthesiologists, oncologists, therapists) and officials establishing those ridiculous rules that I wrote about in my previous posts became possible. But that was not the case...

3 days before the press conference, it became clear that one of the leading experts in organizing palliative care for terminal cancer patients, Professor G.A., would not be able to attend the meeting. Novikov. It was on this day (December 3) that the Ministry of Health suddenly scheduled a meeting of the working group on the problems of providing this very palliative care (a strange coincidence, isn’t it?). On the day of the round table, an official representative of the Ministry of Health informed the organizers that the ministry “does not have the ability to delegate anyone to this event.” The Federal Drug Control Service basically ignored the invitation, without even deigning to formally refuse it.

The round table still took place (you can listen to the broadcast at the link ). There were many competent, highly professional speeches by specialists who knew the problem from the inside, and emotional stories from patients or their relatives who had such a terrible experience - facing the Russian system of providing patients (primarily terminal cancer patients) with narcotic drugs.

Why didn’t representatives of the two departments, on which the solution to the problem depends, deign to participate in the dialogue? Was this a disregard for the opinion of the professional community? Or were officials simply afraid of sharp, “unsmoothed” questions from doctors and patients, to which they could not give a direct and clear answer without hiding behind the usual verbiage?

As one gentleman who did not want to advertise his name and position said: “There are no problems with the prescription of painkillers in Russia.” And attempts at an honest conversation on this topic are nothing more than a get-together with a scandalous odor . ALL. Dot.

Maybe the official is right. And thousands of doctors who are balancing on the border of not only administrative, but also criminal prosecution for non-compliance with the ever-tightening rules for prescribing drugs - they are wrong. And the fact that a hospital in Kamchatka was closed for the lack of a safe secured to the floor is also, in the opinion of the Ministry of Health and the Federal Drug Control Service, correct. What difference does it make where patients are operated on while the deficiencies are being eliminated (the safe is being screwed in correctly)? But neither more nor less - they prevented the illegal diversion of drugs into illegal circulation!

I’ve told you, fellow doctors, that there are NO problems with pain relief in Russia!!! And there is no point in causing panic and worrying the population in vain!

We will understand... and once again Russian ingenuity will allow us to comply with the requirements of the Federal Drug Control Service and provide assistance to the patient. But how can they have the conscience (if officials have one) to talk about the availability of painkillers to patients who need them?

"Our new patient was being treated in England, and her mother was telling us today how pain relief is carried out in London. Only after this conversation did I realize how negligible the forms of painkillers are provided in Russia! In London, a three-year-old girl received morphine in the form of syrup and powder. In In Russia there are only ampoules and tablets. For a child who does not swallow on his own, this is critical - it is a pity to inject the butt every 4 hours, the mother administered English morphine in powder or syrup through a tube, but in America they use an analogue of morphine - fentanyl - in the form. Lollipop.

But the main thing is access to painkillers. In England, the girl took all this at home, her mother did not run around to hand over every ampoule and blister of pills, and did not wait for weeks for a prescription. The doctor at the hospital simply gave them everything with them - as much as they needed. Now the girl has been brought to Russia, and her mother asks how they can get morphine here. I tell you the most disgusting thing - you need to register with the district oncologist, write a statement at the clinic, the doctor will come home, look at the child, the pediatric oncologist will coordinate the appointment with the state drug control..."

This is a story from a pediatric oncologist. Read it, gentlemen, officials, and tell me: do you still claim that there are no problems with prescribing drugs in Russia? If yes, then who are you after this?