Sverdlovsk Oblast merges hospitals to improve specialist access

The Ministry of Health of Sverdlovsk Oblast will merge hospitals in Ivdel, Pelym, Makhnyovo, and Alapayevsk with major medical institutions in Yekaterinburg. This will help resolve the staffing crisis and improve access to care. This was announced by the region«s health minister, Tatyana Savinova, on OTV.

“We spent all of 2025 studying where we have the biggest problems, primarily staffing. In some places, we understand that the best path for us is to merge healthcare facilities. We have one of the most difficult staffing situations in Ivdel and Pelym; this is the northernmost part of the oblast, they cover a large territory with low population density. We have difficulties even with managerial personnel, not to mention specialist doctors, there are essentially none there,” said Tatyana Savinova.

To improve access to medical care, starting in February, the population of the northernmost part of the oblast will be served under the supervision of Sverdlovsk Oblast Clinical Hospital No. 1. Doctors from SOKB will begin traveling to Ivdel and Pelym on a shift basis. The minister said that the chief physician of the oblast hospital, Igor Trofimov, will be responsible for providing quality medical care there. The official merger of the regional hospitals with the oblast one will take place in May.

Primary care will still be provided by paramedics and local physicians on site. Specialist doctors will travel to assist in Ivdel and Pelym once or twice a month. A work schedule will be formed by mid-February. Tatyana Savinova said that the teams are aware of the changes, and according to her, medical staff received the news with enthusiasm.

“Inpatient care will be carried out according to our routing system. Some patients will be treated in Krasnoturinsk, others in Severouralsk, and the most complex cases, of course, in the oblast hospital,” the minister explained.

Tatyana Savinova announced a second important organizational decision — the Ministry of Health will merge the problematic district hospitals in Makhnyovo and Alapayevsk with Central City Clinical Hospital No. 3 in Yekaterinburg. On its basis, Oblast Clinical Hospital No. 3 will be created.

“Today, CCGB No. 3 is managed by one of our most anti-crisis medical managers, Anton Starkov. I am convinced that he will spend part of his working time in Yekaterinburg and another part in his new structural subdivisions. And I very much hope that we will resolve both staffing and financial issues, and most importantly — improve the quality of medical care in these three medical organizations,” said Tatyana Savinova.

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