"These numbers are just a fiction." In Kaliningrad, they do not make a test on Covid-19

In the Kaliningrad clinics, it is impossible to pass tests for coronavirus, patients with symptoms are sent to be treated home without complete diagnosis. At the same time, official statistics indicate a decrease in the number of cases. The infected people believe that the authorities simply do not want to spoil the picture and tear off the tourist season, the correspondent of the North Realia found out.

The Kaliningrad journalist Oksana Shevchenko felt that she was sick: her throat was fading, her head was sick. When the temperature rose to 38.4, she tried to call a doctor at home. But in the district clinic, no one picked up the phone.

“Then I put on a mask and went to the clinic, I still live nearby,” says Oksana. - There is a reception of patients with temperature, from the side entrance. And it seems to be ensured, but very ghostly. They made a separate entrance, but everything, including doctors from other cabinets, use it. In the clinic is a queue, some in a mask, who took it off the nose. In such conditions, you can catch anything you want. After an hour and a half, waiting in line I went to the doctor, they listened to the lungs, looked at the throat and sent home. They said: the lungs are clean, buy something antiviral in a pharmacy, inharapte spray the throat, it's okay.

She asked: did they take the test? No, he says, they didn't even offer

About the same doctor said about the same doctor, who was ill with tuberculosis in childhood - he also stood in that line.

“This is my daughter's classmate.” He came with a temperature, sore throat. He should have in the medical card that a person after tuberculosis is a risk group. He left the office literally after two or three minutes, they told him that it seemed to be bad, go home. She asked: did they take the test? No, he says, they didn’t even offer, ”says Oksana.

"Buy something from coughing"

For several days, Shevchenko tried to be treated at home, but antivirus drugs gave a very weak effect. The temperature disappeared, but the rest of the symptoms only intensified. Together with Oksana, three of her children sat.

- After a few days, my sense of smell disappeared. I went to the clinic again, went to the registry, I say: "Guys, what should I do next? I drank five days of antiviral, but I didn’t feel it better, plus my nose was laid and I don’t understand how to act." And they tell me: today is Saturday, the doctor on duty takes before lunch, a big queue, come to him on Monday. In the meantime, buy something from coughing. And I was surprised by this attitude - if they at least showed alertness or anxiety, but their reaction to everything was very calm, ”says Shevchenko.

It was still not offered to take the test in the clinic, and then Oksana made it in one of the private laboratories.

- I called my mother - to consult, maybe make a paid test, since they don’t take it for free, because I was better than I was gone. Mom agreed with our acquaintance, who works, let's say, in one "departmental" laboratory. And she took my house at home, ”said Oksana.

The test turned out to be positive, and with him on July 28, Shevchenko again went to the doctor on duty. Right from the office she was taken to the ambulance to the Kaliningrad infectious diseases hospital.

- In the hospital the next day I made an ultrasound of the lungs. The KT device is broken, so the doctors have adapted to diagnose pneumonia by ultrasound, ”recalls Oksana. - Then a nurse from the clinic called me, asked to send her a test from the laboratory via Vaiber. I say: "How did it happen that I came to you for help, and they sent me? After all, I have three children, they are now alone at home, and I'm in the hospital." And she to me: "Well, yes, it turned out inconveniently. But, you know, we have an order to take tests only from patients with an age of 65+ or if pneumonia is audition." And at the first visit, I had the very beginning of the disease, so there was no pneumonia as such at that time.

I walked around the city for a week and theoretically could reload many

Due to the lost time and the belated testing of pneumonia in Kaliningrad, it developed.

- I walked around the city for a week and theoretically could reload many. Fortunately, I worked from home, and I didn’t let the guests go home, I realized that I could be contagious. But if I could immediately make a test, then the treatment would be prescribed in a timely manner and it would not have reached pneumonia, ”Shevchenko was convinced.

She told her story on the New Kaliningrad portal, where she works as an editor. Only after that in Rospotrebnadzor began to find out the circle of contacts of the sick patient.

- When the article came out, they called me and began to ask how it was. I asked me to take tests from my parents, although we live in different places, but dad oncology. They took the test from the eldest daughter, she is 19 years old. But the second daughter, she is 12, and the ten -year -old son was not checked to this day, ”says Shevchenko.

Now her children are on quarantine, relatives and friends are brought to the threshold. And Oksana passes “hard therapy”, at the very beginning of which she had to take a total of 17 tablets per day, she was made two injections of antibiotics and one - anticoagulant.

- Now they are at least treated. And when you are at home alone and you feel that something is wrong, but you can’t get an answer, what to do, it is scary. I used to be sick with pneumonia, but this is another. With ordinary pneumonia, the temperature and pain in the lungs during inhalation. And here everything is different. There is no temperature. And at the same time, the feeling that you were sipping water into the sea through your nose, and it went through your nasopharynx and light. Burning feeling everywhere, congestion. And at the same time, the sense of smell for a long time. Doctors themselves say that this is a very strange virus that is not like anything. Now five days have passed after the treatment, but I have no feeling that it was all over. This is a long story, ”says Shevchenko.

No body - no case

The Kaliningrad Rospotrebnadzor assess the situation with coronavirus as unstable. During the pandemic in the millionth region, 2929 people were infected , 51 died. Of which five - over the past week.

At the same time, according to official figures, the number of infected is gradually decreasing. In June, 40-50 cases of infection per day were recorded. And by the beginning of August, this indicator decreased to 12–25 sick.

According to Shevchenko, such low values speak only about the lack of testing in the region:

- In April, they made tests to everyone. And now you will not wait. A decrease in the number of cases was created artificially. Stopped testing. There is no body - there is no business. Someone got sick and did not go to the clinic, someone drank something, he worked and cost. And someone got to listen to him. That's just these people fall into statistics, ”says the journalist. - As far as I know, even from Kaliningrad people flew to Moscow on a business trip, and at the same time they checked the policy for free. But we cannot fly to Moscow only for the sake of testing, and even at the height of the disease, it will be expensive and elementary will not be allowed with symptoms of SARS, you can infect others. Now even in a paid clinic you will not make a test if you have symptoms. And this is the whole problem is not about money, many people are ready to pay. The problem is that this barrier is worth.

Ballast for the state

In Moscow, it is really possible to pass tests with a medical policy in 207 special points open on the basis of medical organizations. And a blood test for antibodies is in 30 points. In St. Petersburg, it is impossible to donate blood on antibodies for free, and strokes for tests for coronavirus are taken in city clinics. But the state is not ready to pay for testing for coronavirus to all Russians. In Arkhangelsk, Pskov, Murmansk, Kaliningrad, only certain categories of citizens can count on free tests.

Coronavirus testing is not included in the state guarantee program

"Coronavirus testing is not included in the state guarantee program, therefore it is carried out for free of medical care or by order of Rospotrebnadzor - to persons in contact with the sick. Also, in accordance with the recommendations of Rospotrebnadzor, from July 27, testing is carried out by public catering, trade, educational institutions who seek medical care, not Excluding a new coronavirus infection, ”the North. Reali correspondent in the press service of the regional Ministry of Health explained.

There are three computed tomography apparatuses in state institutions: in the children's regional hospital, the regional clinical hospital and at the Federal Center for High Medical Technologies in the village of Rodniki. The apparatus in the ambulance hospital is now being repaired. Two more devices will go this month, the press service of the Ministry of Health of the Kaliningrad Region said, for the regional hospital and the Gusev City Hospital, and another is waiting in October for the Central City Clinical Hospital.

You can undergo diagnostics in private centers. The Coronavirus test costs about two thousand rubles, about a thousand antibodies. But you can pass it only if the client has no symptoms of SARS and he did not contact the patients.

The 62-year-old Kaliningrada Elena Voytykhovich also recently felt bad, but could not pass the test.

- I got sick, and by all signs it was a viral infection. After two -week treatment, I had very alarming atypical symptoms. In two private clinics, I was told that with such a pronounced symptomatics they would not take any tests until recovery, ”says Elena.

At the end of July, Rospotrebnadzor widely advertised a new action to test blood on antibodies to coronavirus. Residents of the region were offered to fill out an electronic questionnaire in order to undergo a free study from August 3 to 7. Tests promised to make three thousand people. Voyahovich decided to take the opportunity.

- I filled out the questionnaire on the site, on the second or third day of the promotion, answered numerous questions and, by pressing the “Send” button, received the answer: “Sorry, the quota for your age group was selected” (I am a pensioner). And the figure, how many places in this group were. I was in a slight shock: it turns out that quota for pensioners - only 8% of three thousand benefits of people! But after all, pensioners are a risk group, we were convinced of this, warned, promised to help. Once again, a bitter awareness came that people of retirement age in Russia are just a ballast for the state, ”Elena lamented.

We have destroyed the healthcare system for vicious optimization, and early diagnosis is one of the weakest links

Now she signed up for a CT of the lungs in a private clinic. The cost of the procedure is 3.5 thousand rubles, but as a pensioner Elena can get a 5%discount.

- Is it possible to believe the numbers on the sick if the diagnosis is very controversial and selective? And there are vague doubts. Maybe this is such a policy: not to disclose the whole picture of what is happening, to make up the present, so that it is not so scary? We have destroyed the healthcare system with vicious optimization, and early diagnosis is one of the weakest links. And since the authorities are lying to us constantly (and this has become one of the main attributes of her policy) - to embellish any statistics in absolutely in her spirit, she is sure.

In June, a similar situation was in Yekaterinburg, when private clinics de facto forbidden to make CT of the lungs. The patients who did not achieve the examination suggested that the authorities did not want to spoil the statistics on the eve of the vote for amendments to the Constitution.

“The authorities, in my opinion, simply do not want to tear off the tourist season with such difficulty, only everything started - and again close everything,” says Oksana Shevchenko. - Everyone must test, massively, then we will understand the real picture. Otherwise, all these figures are just a fiction.