Hospital record

immediately appeared At the height of the coronavirus epidemic in Russia, as in other countries, new technologies in healthcare began to develop rapidly: the remote sale of medicines began to be widely used , and telemedicine . And by 2022, the country has completely abandoned paper sick leave - now they are issued only in electronic form and sent to the employer. Moreover, to receive such a sick leave during an epidemic, you don’t even have to go to the clinic , it is issued online.

The electronic sick leave certificates (ELN) themselves, as the sick leave is now called, appeared even before the epidemic, they began to be introduced gradually from 2017. A year before the advent of the coronavirus, only one in four sick days was digital. But by the end of 2020, almost all sick-lists were issued (or duplicated) electronically - by November, medical institutions were connected to the system, which ensure the issuance of more than 99% of all sheets . In total, at the end of 2020, two-thirds of the sheets were issued electronically: the total number of sick leaves amounted to 60 million pieces , of which 39.4 million fell on ELN.

The very first month of the universal mandatory use of ELN showed a record incidence of Russians during the omicron wave. to According the Social Insurance Fund (FSS), in January 2022, more than 6 million sick days were issued. At the same time, until 2020, only 40 million sheets were issued a year - which means that January was a record for the number of sick leaves issued in Russia for all time.

For comparison, a year ago in January, the second wave of coronavirus was on the decline. And then for a month, which consists of a third of days off, the Russians issued only 2.6 million sick days, that is, half as much as in the previous December.

This omicron effect is not unique to Russia. As Cold has already said , despite the apparent “softness”, omicron still fills hospitals due to the rapid rise in the number of cases. This is also true for those who do not need hospitalization, but who still feel too ill to go to work. The result is a "natural lockdown" - when no one forces people, but they are still forced to stay at home.

It was mass sick leave among transport, health and education workers that led to the fact that in December the UK reduced the period of self-isolation from ten to seven days. the same did Soon the US . On January 18, a similar reduction (from 14 to 7 days) of quarantine was announced in Russia.

The FSS data takes into account only the number of sick leaves issued, and not the number of people who issued them. Kholod addressed this issue to the Ministry of Health, but they could not promptly provide data for January. But if we assume that in the three working weeks of January the same person could hardly fall ill twice, then it turns out that 8.4% of employed Russians received sick leave, which is every 12th.

By the beginning of February, the peak of the omicron wave in Russia had not yet been reached. Records for the number of cases are updated every day. This means that there will only be more people who will not be able to go to work and drive buses, cook food or take care of the sick.