"We need to breathe less." How the Ministry of Health spent millions on advertising

“Get fat means to age” - such billboards with social advertising appeared on the streets of Kaliningrad on November 1. So the regional Ministry of Health decided to attract the attention of Kaliningraders to the topic of a healthy lifestyle. The budget spent 3.2 million rubles on the council of the “less than eating” advice.

According to the website of public procurement , the customer of the banner - GBUZ "Center for Medical Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Kaliningrad Region", acting by order of the Ministry of Health of the region.

Under the contract, the performer - IP Kostikova Svetlana Aleksandrovna - was supposed to manufacture and place on 59 stationary advertising structures - billboards, posture cabins, etc. - posters with social advertising. And also release videos for forty units of public transport and 6.5 thousand leaflets. All this is within the framework of the information and communication campaign of the regional project "Strengthening public health".

Banners and rollers that Kaliningraders will observe until December 31, cost the regional budget of 3.25 million rubles.

"Zhgov Napalm"

The good, in principle, the initiative to attract the attention of the population to healthy lifestyle turned into a scandal. Kaliningraders ridiculed the campaign on social networks.

“Well, finally, in our area where pensioners live on the bulk, the banner has“ stopped eating ”, the next banner for pensioners - this is“ enough to live, ”Kaliningraders write in the comments.

"Against the backdrop of a steady decline in the purchasing capacity of the population of the Kaliningrad region, the constant increase in the cost of food and the general economic" nightmare ", the new advertising campaign of the local Ministry of Health with the leitmotif" needs to eat less "for 3.2 million rubles. It looks very appropriate. It is clear, it is better to stop there. Telegram channel Milovanov Daily.

It is clear, it is better in principle to stop eating at all

There are also banners against alcoholism in the campaign, which offer residents to "think." “The Ministry of Health continues to burn with napalm.“ Think! ”, They say. What is there to think about? About that only men drink? About the family, funny starts with an obstacle run? Or“ to be with your family, you need a bottle ”? Or still about how much money could be invested in the oncocenter, hospice, hospitals to the poor, real repairs in hospitals. Doctors and medical staff - and not to shoot taxpayers' money for this vulgar <shit>? ”, Asks the Kaliningrad Alexander Furman.

In addition, the townspeople noticed that the performer went in a short way and borrowed ideas and slogans from the agitlakates, which were produced by the USSR Ministry of Health. In one case, the prototype was the Soviet poster of 1985, published in the midst of the Gorbachev anti -alcohol company. In another, the original was released in 1958 by the USSR Ministry of Health with a circulation of 50,000 copies.

"Why produce nonsense?"

By such social advertising, the authorities discredit themselves, says Ilya Shumanov, Deputy General Director of Transpensers Internet - Russia:

Doctors themselves look helplessly at dying, and officials from the Ministry of Health are well aware that they just need money

- I looked at the state contract, there are no requirements for layouts. It turns out that the contractor has prepared the layouts, and the customer had to sign them and evaluate their ethics. He could not accept. But we, apparently, have different understandings about ethics - representatives of state bodies and citizens. I believe that representatives of the authorities are obliged to refrain from unethical statements, actions and actions. In my opinion, such an advertisement undermines the already undermined image of the authorities. These are very controversial banners. And such provocative advertising will not be accepted and provoke a negative reaction from citizens.

Against the background of falling incomes of the population and a difficult situation in regional healthcare, it is not clear how to spend money in this way, says Lyudmila Zelinskaya, coordinator of the Kaliningrad Public Committee on Health.

- Three million rubles are solid treatment courses for six cancer patients, 500 thousand rubles each. The money is not enough chronically, terribly, the doctors themselves look helplessly at the dying, and officials from the Ministry of Health are well aware that they just need money for which you can buy medicines in order to save life. Healthcare is dying of underfunding.

In the Kaliningrad region, as in the whole country, due to underfunding, the staff of hospitals is seriously declining. This is especially true for junior medical staff - orderlies, nurses, says Zelinskaya. And money goes to social advertising.

The orderlies are massively transferred to cleaners, that is, you fulfill the main part of the duties, but already for 15 thousand rubles

- The orderlies are literally thrown out of hospitals. And money is the creation of jobs in a good hospital. Here every penny is on the account - and why breed stupid things? - the social activist is indignant.

The junior medical staff is sometimes not thrown away, but transferred to the category of cleaners, says an employee of the Kaliningrad ambulance hospital. She refused to name her name.

- The work of the orderlies is hard work. In the department of purulent surgery are grandmothers, who with the urinary receivers, they need to be lifted, turned over, taken to an ultrasound. All women at such work break their backs. It’s good that there are sanitary men. We pay for the orderlies more or less, on average, salary is about 30 thousand. But the problem is that the staff is constantly optimized. The orderly is massively transferred to cleaners, that is, you fulfill the main part of the duties, but for 15 thousand rubles, ”says the orderly.

According to her, salaries were greatly cut to the younger medical staff before the World Cup, when repairs were carried out in the hospital.

- This could be ridiculous (the emergence of such an advertisement) if it had not entailed the expenditure of budget money, which are not enough for drugs and components for an expensive equipment purchased according to the national programs. And sometimes even on elementary consumables for the same Xeroxes, computers, to print extracts for patients. And all this is very sad when our officials who should serve people spend money so irrational, ”says Mikhail Chesalin, deputy of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma.

"Two" of the Ministry of Health

If we take on prevention, then professionally, says Marina Shaposhnikova, chairman of the region’s defenders of the region:

-Today we do not have a prevention of cardiovascular diseases at all, and this is the cause of the number one mortality in the region. It would be possible to print booklets and distribute to all hypertension. And such social advertising, where we are advised to eat less, only causes rejection. This was relevant in the last century. And the same obesity is a comprehensive problem, including stress to it. In general, the "deuce" of the Ministry of Health. The money thrown off, the goal has not been achieved. In addition, it smells of plagiarism, which means that the Ministry of Health is simply obliged to conduct an internal check, why it happened.

We are ready to conduct a survey for free and provide a real picture of the state of healthcare

According to her, today there are too many problems in the region to spend more than three million on "unnecessary social advertising." And too little money. For example, officials did not find 157 thousand rubles in the 2020 budget to finance the free hotline of the Ministry of Health.

- At the same time, in 2016-2019, 90 million rubles received institutions that are engaged in the transportation of the government. Maybe it is worth reducing the expenses for the transportation of representatives of the executive and legislative power of the subject? - asks Shaposhnikov. - Also last year, 500 thousand rubles were spent on drawing up a rating of healthcare institutions. And this year, 900 thousand rubles have already been forced. This is an supposedly independent public assessment. But the survey was compiled unprofessional, in it everything is satisfied with the quality of services by 80%. Yes, we, social activists, are ready to conduct a survey for free and provide a real picture of the state of healthcare. Here is the saving of the budget.

The painful clashes of Kaliningraders with the healthcare sphere are constantly described in the media and social networks.

Recently, the husband of Kaliningrad, Victoria Churbanova, told how his wife received legal medicines for the treatment of oncology - with a delay of more than a month and five times less than the set norm.

“Two packages of the drug were allocated in a dosage of 10 mg. Instead of four packs of 25 mg. That is, half as much, even after such a serious delay. And what kind of treatment is this? The state of the wife, meanwhile, worsens,” said Igor Churbanov .

The region does not have enough official housing for visiting doctors - this was recently stated by the head of the regional Ministry of Health Alexander Kravchenko .

There are problems with providing drugs of preferential categories of citizens. Infant mortality increased .

The therapist retirement serves several villages-it goes around the patients on a bicycle

There are difficulties with financing medicine in the village where there are no specialists or conditions. According to the doctors themselves, they are forced to heat the faps with stoves, and in the east of the region, far from the regional center, one retirement therapist serves several villages - and goes around the patients on a bicycle because there is no vehicle.

At the same time, in relation to the doctor who arrived under the Zemsky Doctor program, who was accused of fraud, only recently the criminal case was terminated. The doctor was innocent , but under investigation lived for several years. Another doctor, neonatologist Elina Sushkevich , is now under investigation for the death of the baby. These doctors did not receive any support from the Ministry of Health.

Recently, the region was visited by President Vladimir Putin. Before his visit, the Kaliningraders published on social networks a photo of the tattered facades of healthcare institutions, including the hospital No. 3 and the children's clinic. Located not somewhere in the outback, but right in the regional center.

In response, the press service of the Ministry of Health of the region reported that the buildings would be repaired-but not immediately. While there is no money for their repairs, because the facades "cost more than one penny."

When asked where the free 3.2 million rubles came from for advertising posters, the press service of the Ministry of Health agreed to respond only after the written request of the editorial office.

The answer came in a few days. The ministry annually reported that the advertising campaign was held as part of the regional project "Strengthening Public Health" of the National Project "Demography". And the fact that the design of the posters was borrowed from Soviet samples, from the point of view of the department, not plagiarism at all, but an justified artistic solution. As the basis, writes Minister Alexander Kravchenko , "materials of the sanitary-access of the late 70s of the last century were taken, which were at the disposal of the Center for Medical Prevention and the institution transferred in Soviet times for the use of a healthy lifestyle in their activities to promote."