Problems and development of emergency medical service were discussed at “Healthcare Hour” in Ufa

UFA, 7 February 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The meeting in a “Healthcare Hour” format, held by Acting Head of Bashkiria Radiy Khabirov, was devoted today to the problems of the emergency medical service. According to the Ministry of Health RB, there are 305 ambulance teams in the republic. At the same time, only one team per shift operates in seven districts (in Belokataysky, Ermekeevsky, Zilairsky, Kiginsky, Sterlibashevsky, Fedorovsky, Sharansky), there are two teams per shift in 14 districts.

To remedy this situation, the ambulance services are centralized: small departments are merged with large ones - in cities or regional centers. In the republic, emergency stations are staffed with doctors at 54%, and paramedics - 79%.

The service fleet consists of 504 vehicles, of which 140 are 100% worn out. The total depreciation of the fleet is 67%. In 2018, the republic purchased 225 ambulance vehicles. At the moment there is a need to replace 100 - 140 units of transport, and therefore an order for 60 cars has been submitted to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Since 2012, outsourcing has been used in the emergency medical service; now, 83 vehicles are operating under the contract (55 in Ufa, 24 in Sterlitamak, 4 in Birsk). In the country as a whole, there is a tendency to abandon renting of ambulances, the Interim Minister of Health Maxim Zabelin reports.

One of the criteria for a good emergency medical service is to reach a patient for up to 20 minutes. The performance of this indicator is hampered by the remoteness of some villages and the poor condition of roads in rural areas. Despite all the difficulties, the service manages to get at the accident scene within 20 minutes in more than 97% of cases. Another important indicator is assisting a stroke by thrombolysis procedure (thrombus dissolution) in 25% of cases. This indicator is also performed in the specified proportion.

The emergency operations control centre is being improved in the region. By 2019, technical re-equipment has been completed, which will allow monitoring the work of all the teams around the clock, creating a unified information system for all medical institutions in the region.