Sverdlovsk Region to Create Unified Psychiatric Service

In the Urals, a decision has been made to create a unified psychiatric service. The regional Ministry of Health has supported this interesting idea.

Last week, Sverdlovsk Region«s Minister of Health Tatyana Savinova met with the heads of the region»s psychiatric hospitals and approved the creation of a unified specialized service based on the Sverdlovsk Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital (SOKPB).

“I am very pleased that our regional psychiatric hospital is looking to the best clinics in the country,” said Tatyana Savinova. “This includes creating a memory clinic for elderly patients who need to maintain cognitive potential. We also discussed a mental health clinic for working middle-aged residents who have not so much diseases as somatic complaints: insomnia, headaches, abdominal pain, shortness of breath. Therefore, we are considering a completely separate structural unit for mental health care,” noted Tatyana Savinova.

The psychiatric service involves merging four specialized medical institutions in the region into a single psychiatric hospital based on SOKPB.

The goal of this step is more rational use of shared resources. For example, it will be possible to use bed capacity more efficiently, including addiction treatment beds, and create a unified management that will allow for proper patient routing, especially within Yekaterinburg.

“The issue of unifying the psychiatric service has been long-standing, and we have been working towards it since 2009,” emphasized SOKPB chief physician Oleg Serdyuk. “Now we are ready to merge into one large institution. This will allow us to provide equal quality care and ensure better accessibility for the region«s population. Our psychiatric service is quite cohesive and united.”

It is important to note that the reorganization does not involve reducing either outpatient dispensary departments or inpatient facilities. The regional Ministry of Health noted that only the legal structure will change. A similar model has already been successfully implemented in many regions of the country, and most municipal psychiatric departments in Sverdlovsk Region were attached to SOKPB 10 years ago.

Recall that earlier, the Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Health decided to merge small hospitals in remote towns with large Yekaterinburg medical institutions. This will help solve the staffing crisis and increase access to care.

Also, in Sverdlovsk Region, the scheme for receiving emergency calls will be changed. If until now it was possible to call doctors directly through hospitals, in the coming months there will be a unified dispatch service for the entire region. They will accept calls on numbers 103 and 112.