The Chelyabinsk Children's Hospital denies that there are not enough beds for patients after the closure of the urology department

The Chelyabinsk Regional Children's Clinical Hospital commented on the closure of the urology department at OKB No. 3 . The medical institution claims that there are now enough beds for all patients, and the doctor of the disbanded department, Ekaterina Voronina, staged an “information war” and “cheated” the parents.

As Voronina told Takim Dela, from November 1, their department was repurposed for the treatment of coronavirus, and all patients were redirected to the Chelyabinsk Regional Children's Clinical Hospital (ChODKB). On December 22, the regional Ministry of Health issued a decree that the department was finally disbanded and the employees were laid off (a copy of the document is at the disposal of the editors).

Voronina added that about 30 employees of the department were laid off, and there were only 30 beds left in the city and region instead of the previous 47.

The head of the public relations department of the Chelyabinsk Regional Children's Clinical Hospital, Dmitry Rudenok, said that the repurposing of OKB No. 3 for the treatment of coronavirus accelerated the transfer of the pediatric urology department to their institution. “Because the urology department was the only pediatric department in the adult hospital. You cannot treat children in one narrow direction; there must always be an integrated approach. During treatment in the hospital, other specialists should be with the child,” he commented.

Rudenok noted that after the department was transferred to the Children's Clinical Hospital, three meetings were held with the staff of the urology department from OKB No. 3: the doctors were shown the departments and offered a job. According to the head of the public relations department of the ChODKB, Voronin and the head of the disbanded department, Sergei Danilyuk, refused the offer.

“She [Ekaterina] says that 30 doctors are left without work. This is complete nonsense. If you think about it, they had 30 beds in the department. It turns out that there is one doctor for each bed? They only had four urologists, the rest of the employees were mid-level and junior medical staff,” says Rudenok. He also added that “nurses and orderlies immediately found jobs.” They were offered to stay at OKB No. 3, which is now working with patients with coronavirus, Rudenok claims.

He denies Voronina’s words that the Chelyabinsk Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital has only 10 urological beds. According to the head of the public relations department of the ChODKB, there are 40 of them. In addition, he added that their institution has “a huge surgical building, modern equipment, which the Troika specialists, alas, did not work on.”

Now the ChODKB receives an average of two to three people a day, Rudenok continued, “the beds are empty, there is no load.”

She [Voronina] started an information war against us. Our doctors are very outraged by this story, they are ready to quit if Voronina works for us

“Several mothers were scammed and told that their children would not receive help in the hospital,” Rudenok believes.

Commenting on the position of the children's hospital, Voronina insists that the institution cannot accommodate the 30 beds that worked in OKB No. 3. Accordingly, it is impossible to transfer all employees.

“The fact that employees moved to the Covid block in the “troika” is not a solution to the problem. Tomorrow this branch will close and people will remain on the street. We have a lot of children left without help because there are not enough beds. Parents of children who had previously been in this hospital and know the quality of care began to look for other regions for treatment: Tyumen, Yekaterinburg, Moscow,” Voronina said.

Anna , the mother of a child with intrauterine pathology, also added that the total number of urological beds has been reduced, but the number of sick children is not decreasing. She could not confirm the information from the head of the public relations department of the Children's Children's Clinical Hospital that the children's hospital has 40 beds, because she had not yet applied there. However, according to Anna, “it is not normal when there is only one narrowly specialized department left in the city.”

“When there are only 10 operating pediatric urologists in the city, half of whom are not working now, we can only get to a urologist by referral from a local pediatrician at least a month in advance. I don’t think this is affordable health care,” she concluded.