Kuzbass governor halts hospital mergers after tragedy

The merger of several urban and district hospitals in Kuzbass, planned for 2026, will not be carried out. The optimization has been decided to be suspended in the region after the tragedy that occurred at Maternity Hospital No. 1 in Novokuznetsk, Governor Ilya Seredyuk announced during a live broadcast on social media on Thursday, January 22.

The head instructed the regional Ministry of Health to stop the merger of medical institutions, specifically the Mezhdurechensk City Hospital with the Myski Hospital, the Mariinsk Hospital with the Chebulinsk Hospital, the Anzhero-Sudzhensk Hospital with the Yaya and Izhora Hospitals, as well as Novokuznetsk Hospital No. 29 with the clinical infectious diseases hospital.

«These mergers that were conceived bring nothing good. All these issues need to be approached through a very thorough prism of justification; it is important to consult with residents and doctors,» Seredyuk stated.

In addition, in Kuzbass, they plan to change the rules for purchasing medical equipment. During the broadcast, the governor emphasized that currently this process in hospitals is not transparent, which is why problems arise.

Seredyuk proposed centralizing the purchase of heavy equipment for institutions, components, and medicines, with verification that only conscientious companies participate in tenders.

The optimization in question has been carried out in the region for the last seven years, during which medicine has lost dozens of hospitals, beds, and doctors. The merger process, as previously found out by NGS42.RU, was started by Yelena Malysheva, and continued by the first minister of health of the region, Mikhail Malin, and his successor, Dmitry Beglov, who is now accused of bribery.

Our editorial team thoroughly analyzed what the industry lost during the tenure of the three officials and what it gained.