Volgograd Medics Worked Without Pay for Six Months on National Project

Doctors and laboratory technicians at Volgograd Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1 did not receive payments for six months for work on analyses to assess male reproductive health. This situation arose in the medical institution where at the beginning of the year the governor opened a capital-renovated intensive care and resuscitation department.

According to a source, the medics conducted research as part of a national project with a budget of over 6 million rubles (approximately $60,000 at current rates). The only payment, amounting to less than 2,000 rubles (about $20), was received by staff only in December, although over six months they performed more than a thousand analyses.

‘The head assured that more than 6 million was allocated for this project. After six months, 27,000 was allocated to the department,’ the source said. To conduct the analyses, the hospital purchased equipment worth 1.14 million rubles (approximately $11,400), but due to poor quality and insufficient consumables, the equipment broke down and required repair.

The Volgograd Regional Health Committee called the information about non-payments fake. ‘All employees of the clinical diagnostic laboratory who participated in the implementation of the preparatory stage of the IVF program were accrued and paid their wages on time,’ the department reported.

The Territorial Fund of Compulsory Medical Insurance stated that Volgograd Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1 is not participating in the population screening program for reproductive health. ‘If this is some program of the regional health committee, then for explanations one should contact the committee,’ said the fund«s director Anna Pail.

The regional health department refused to disclose the amount of funds allocated for the program. Senior consultant of the information department Alena Gennadyevna Strelina did not provide explanations. After journalists« inquiry, the hospital»s chief physician held a meeting at which he warned employees about the consequences for commenting on the situation.

Earlier in Volgograd, paramedics and nurses of the ambulance service complained about non-payment of the New Year«s bonus, but officials claimed that all due payments were made on time.