How the 31st hospital is protected

Residents of St. Petersburg won their first victory in the fight for city hospital No. 31. In December it became known that they planned to disband it and turn it into a hospital for judges of the Supreme Arbitration and Supreme Courts. Over 90 thousand people signed a petition in defense of Hospital No. 31. Single pickets are held on Nevsky Prospekt every day, and a mass picket is planned for January 23. Despite the fact that Georgy Poltavchenko promised not to touch the hospital, the defenders assure that they need one hundred percent guarantees that the hospital will be left alone.

"You can't calm down"

“Rumors that they wanted to take away the hospital had been circulating for a very long time. No one had anything in their hands, but someone somewhere heard something from friends, and it spread quite quickly,” Elena Gracheva, coordinator, told PublicPost programs of the Advita charitable foundation. “Then the parents wrote a letter to the president to make sure that the hospital was safe and the rumors were unfounded. And then this resolution was leaked to the press by the management of President Kozhin. But there is still no response to the letter.” .

Elena is a philologist, has been involved with the foundation for several years, and knows the hospital staff very well. The phone in her apartment rings incessantly: Gracheva communicates with journalists, runs around press conferences, patiently explains for the hundredth time how and where to sign a petition in defense of the 31st hospital. “This is the first time I have seen such unanimity: the petition was signed by the entire hospital staff, from the head physician to the nurses. And next to it are the signatures of Tatyana Tolstoy, Boris Grebenshchikov, who, one might say, came down from the mountains to sign the petition.” Messages that Vice-Governor Kazanskaya allegedly tried to “shut up” the entire staff, which persistently circulated on Facebook, Gracheva considers gossip. Doctors actively communicate with journalists: “It’s important for us now not to miss this topic. Now everyone is talking about it, thousands of people came out in defense of the hospital, and then the authorities will say something conciliatory to calm everyone down and go into the shadows. But the conquest the hospital will continue anyway, they will quietly summon the heads of each department, they will evict them with carrots and sticks. I think we cannot calm down until they show us such a piece of paper that they will leave the hospital once and for all.”

Nightingales for judges

Elena Gracheva is afraid for a reason. According to her, they have already “dug” for the hospital more than once: “When it was necessary to equip a medical facility for the Constitutional Court, they also talked a lot about the 31st. But then Matvienko did not give the hospital away, they built a separate building for the Constitutional Court - a kind of compromise.”

The hospital for the Constitutional Court actually stands on the territory of the 31st.

According to the approximate estimates of the architect Yuri Weber, previously the territory of the 31st was 11 hectares, now it is 8. Weber took part in the design of the 31st hospital in the 70s and says that the construction of the building for the Constitutional Court unpleasantly surprised him: “The uniqueness of 31 1st City Clinical Hospital, among other things, is that it is surrounded by an absolutely wonderful park. This park is important for the rehabilitation of patients, there are special places for walking, for exercise, densely planted trees for patients who are harmful to ultraviolet radiation. they built a center for judges in this park. And in this park, when I was young, nightingales sang there, and in general there was a wonderful atmosphere. Nightingales still sing there.”

Krestovsky Island, where the hospital is located, is a traditionally elite place: “In Peter’s times,” says Weber, “the country estates of nobles were located there. In the Brezhnev era, there were also mansions of quite noble people. It so happened that those who can pay live on Krestovsky Island there’s a lot of money for accommodation. This place is well-groomed, green, and St. Petersburg residents love to come here for a walk. In Soviet times, Hospital No. 31 was a medical facility for the regional party committee, party veterans, and the like.”

Deadly crossing

“Why is everyone talking only about the children’s oncology department?” Elena Gracheva is surprised. “The whole hospital is in danger, it’s a single organism. If we plan to move a laboratory along with the children’s department, several more departments will lose this laboratory.”

Grachev does not want to discuss the move in principle. “We shouldn’t even allow such a thought. Today I went to see the premises of the first hospital, on the basis of which they are going to organize a children’s oncology center. The 1st hospital is wonderful, but its work is tailored for something else.” The relocation of the pediatric oncohematology department means that a terminal fund must be organized in the new location, very well equipped from a technical point of view. Laboratories cannot be transported from one hospital to another: “Hospital equipment is very expensive and is not intended to be assembled and disassembled several times. The manufacturer will immediately remove the equipment from the warranty, and no one will undertake disassembly. This means that, for example, , the radioisotope laboratory, which we have been waiting for like manna from heaven, will be thrown away."

About 20% of childhood tumors are brain tumors. For such patients, radiation therapy is necessary. Gracheva says that in St. Petersburg there are two places where this therapy can be carried out: in 31st and another one - actually in the suburbs. “I don’t understand how we will transport children to radiation therapy, say, from the 1st hospital. Due to traffic jams, it takes an hour and a half. Most of the time we simply won’t be able to transport them; on the way, the child may develop cerebral edema, and it will be necessary to save him It won't be possible."

Not just the oncology department

The working day of Evgeny Petrovich Evdoshenko, head of the multiple sclerosis center of the 31st hospital, begins at 9 am. While we are talking to him, doctors who came from London to the meeting are seated in the next office. Immediately after the meeting, patients are admitted.

Before starting the conversation, Evgeniy Petrovich warns: he does not believe in the dissolution of the hospital, because this simply cannot happen. About the closure of the hospital: “There are different rumors, but I can’t imagine that the decision will not be made in favor of the patients. I think that now it is more important to show what we have achieved and how we work.” The Multiple Sclerosis Center was built two years ago almost entirely with sponsorship money. “They simply believed us and gave us funding. In Russia, too little attention is paid to multiple sclerosis, and such a center in St. Petersburg was simply necessary. Multiple sclerosis is an extremely serious disease that can turn a patient of working age into a disabled person.”

Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Hospital No. 31 Evgeniy Petrovich Evdoshenko

Before the opening of the center, the treatment of multiple sclerosis was traditionally carried out by the Military Medical Academy, the First Medical Academy and a number of other clinics. But, according to Evdoshenko, it happened something like this: the young man woke up in the morning, his hand went numb and his eye was blind. He goes to the ophthalmologist, the ophthalmologist sends him to a neurologist, the neurologist sends him for an IMRI, the young man goes for an IMRI. There it is revealed that the patient has multiple sclerosis. And then the patient, as a rule, had to catch the professor in one of the clinics, because professors are often at conferences and they do not have office hours. By the time such a young person is diagnosed and treated, he will already be disabled. The Multiple Sclerosis Center of the 31st Hospital is one of the few where the patient is observed and treated comprehensively. During the work of the center, a city registry of patients was created, a detailed medical history was created for each patient with data on possible progression of the disease and adverse events for any drug. The only immunological diagnostic tests in Russia, genetic tests, as well as tests to determine therapy tolerance have been developed and included in the standards.

The neurology department for patients with multiple sclerosis has an adult hospital with 40 beds, and it is planned to open several wards for children. “The Multiple Sclerosis Center of the Institute of Children’s Infections, which admits about a hundred children in serious condition with suspected multiple sclerosis, sends all these children to us for outpatient observation. Therefore, the creation of a children’s hospital is a very important stage.”

Day hospital department

The day hospital department is not at all like the office of a free hospital: modern equipment, a large TV hanging on the wall. “Children come with their flash drives and watch cartoons while the medicine is dripping. The last time we watched “Shrek”. The repairs in the hospital were done almost with their own hands, Evgeniy Petrovich shows photographs in which nurses help workers install window frames. “We have very a close-knit team, we do not divide the space into medical and nursing, we are all together. This system is accepted all over the world, and we adopted it from foreign hospitals where we worked." Evdoshenko constantly refers to foreign experience, tries to maintain relationships with specialists in other countries, obtains free drugs and modern equipment for the center. "We are the only ones in the North -In the West, we screen all our patients free of charge for the presence of the JC virus, which is of enormous importance in the development of complications in a patient on immunosuppressive therapy. Every six months we send tests to Copenhagen, to the only reference laboratory in Europe. This is not clinical research, but normal medical practice."

Elena, a patient at the center, comes into the office: “I was diagnosed in May 2008. Unfortunately, it is now very difficult to get to the hospital where I was previously treated, especially during an exacerbation. Here, after an examination, I was immediately sent for treatment. And so, How would I recover? And I work. In my district clinic I can get steroids for a fee, and I, in principle, can pay. But the doctors at the center are somehow more trusted.” .

Single picket on Nevsky Prospekt

City authorities are not to blame

In an interview with our publication, the press secretary of Vice-Governor Kazantseva, Irina Sharipova, argued that the decision on the 31st hospital came down from above: “The task was set of organizing medical care for judges and their families. A wish was expressed regarding the 31st hospital (it was recorded in the minutes of the meeting). We are currently working on alternative options, but since the request for the 31st hospital was expressed, this option is now being discussed as the only and only one."

“I’m inclined to believe her,” Elena Gracheva commented on Sharipova’s words. “I’m just sure that neither Kazantseva nor Poltavchenko are going to give up our hospital. They were supposed to give an answer back in December, but they still haven’t given it. I think they They are looking for options. In addition to the center for the Constitutional Court, which only works at 20% capacity (the rest are patients who are treated for a fee), there is also a medical center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It is, of course, not on Krestovsky Island, but there, I think, judges will be able to do so. provide excellent conditions for treatment with a personalized menu, fountains and everything else."