In response to our article with expressive photos, journalist Iryna Harmasiy wrote a detailed article on the causes of the devastation in the Uzhgorod city hospital and even gave the city government some recommendations.
We are publishing her post in Facebook, according to the original, preserving the style and without comments.
The only thing we want to emphasize: there was no violation of journalistic ethics, in particular because the photo report was made in a public place, and given the public importance. However, we apologize to the head of the department for adversity "provoked" by the article, it was never our intent.
And here’s the publication.
"Hot" report from the General Therapy Department of Uzhgorod City Clinical Hospital
Summer day of June 5, 2014 imposed on me a sort of a journalistic mission. In the morning, the health care sphere of the "European" city of Uzhgorod and doctors of Uzhgorod City Hospital, especially the department of general therapy, including myself as a patient of it, found themselves in an unpleasant situation. Later in the afternoon, I was in the epicenter of the hot spot (thank God, no fighting), but then again it is luck for a journalist, especially an assistant deputy, who has direct responsibility for helping their representatives. The cause of that was the article of the Transcarpathian information and business portal uzhgorod.in "City Clinical Hospital: clinical case of disorder and devastation (PHOTO)" – (for the sake of objectivity you should read comments to).
Have you read it?! The arguments of the article are simple: "… we are not blaming anyone. We are asking "why?" Why people who devoted their lives to work, children, favorite occupation, hometown, calling – why they are treated in such almost inhuman conditions. Because these conditions definitely can not be called human. And doctors are definitely not responsible for this… ".
However, dear colleagues, the administration of the hospital blames for it none other than a doctor – the head of the department of general therapy Lyubov Smahina, a physician with 40 years experience. She was blamed for journalists who worked in the department without her knowledge (which is a violation of journalistic ethics, and I think you need to apologize). The acting chief physician Volodymyr Shpontak (the chief physician Ivan Kurakh is on leave) found on the photos deviation from medical standards and criticized her for that too, and also noted that she did not attract enough benefactors for repair and probably some other things, known only to them.
Not that I want to put pen to paper during treatment, but professional duty obliges. I understand the authors of the article, I am happy as a politician that the number of concerned community activists is increasing, and it is normal, especially after the revolution and hundreds of heroic deaths. I am not justifying the shortcomings of physicians, because they are everywhere. I do not deny degrading treatment conditions in the "most popular" department of general therapy, I only reason. Since 2012, when I was here for the last time, the department has become very impoverished. Although for me, exhausted by the Revolution of Dignity, they arranged a separate (renovated by the staff) room with private bathroom. However, under these conditions, it is very difficult to feel a citizen of the state, doomed to care for your health. And the first thing I wanted to ask Lyubov Konstantinivna is about the repair of the department. Once again journalistic intuition did not fail me, and later (read above) I was in the epicenter. I had to calm the doctor, and to listen to many hospital employees (not on purpose), and to talk to with the administration of the medical institution. I do not claim to make the analysis of the health department of Uzhgorod city council, because it is a separate piece of work for many days. However, I suggest ten important hot and cold arguments that reflect the essence of the matter.
1. In the Uzhgorod city hospital, they have performed renovations at more than 1 million hryvnia in the intensive care, operating rooms, surgical ward number 2, gynecology, the department of vascular neurology, traumatology and more. All departments raise funds from sponsors or make repairs at their own expense. But the administration has for years ignored the repair of the popular for objective and, in recent years, subjective reasons department. Twice the department has been excluded from the schedule of repairs for budget funds. For the reasons, ask the senior doctor because not all at the administration know that. The staff was even glad to a certain extent, because finally there may be some progress in the situation.
2. The administration demonstrates strange logic: if you do not attract enough money to the department, then you a poor head. So the professional level of a doctor, which is currently at a premium, is second? I think it’s a humiliating situation, where the doctor and nurses are required to be managers and improve the conditions at their own resources and by seeking benefactors. It takes another kind of talent.
3. During the year, nearly 13,000 patients are treated here in total, of whom 1600-1800 patients, mostly serious, are treated in the therapy department. For all of them, there are only 2 full-time and three part-time physicians, because they are saving the city budget. Every year, more than 50 incurable patients die here. There is the assertion that if a patient is sent from the regional oncological clinic to the therapy department, it means that they are going to die.
4. For food in the city hospital, the budget provides for 5.50 UAH three times a day!! and it has been so for many years.
5. For 1 bed / day, 6.00 UAH!! are provided for medicine, for which you can buy one drip system, but not medicine. In particular, for comparison, at the regional hospital – 40.00 UAH, in Mukachevo – 28.00 UAH, in V.Berezny – 22.00 UAH. This is what they say in the administration, but patients buy all medications for their own money, and I have spent a pretty penny too. The administration do not deny that the level of health care services in the hospital is the lowest.
6. Uzhgorod City Hospital is subject to the city health care department, where 5 employees work. I do not know what programs they have developed for ordinary Uzhgorod residents, etc. (you can check), but they always cut the hospital staff to save on salary that takes up almost 90% of the budget. The rest is spent on drugs and food.
7. Hospital pharmacy is a profitable business on patients. Some drugs here are more expensive than in pharmacies of the city (I checked). But the problem is that drugs are very expensive because there is a chain of intermediaries and I address this blatant issue to the central government. Here they told me a new scheme of smart Uzhgorod residents regarding medicine supplies. The buy medicines in Hungary, where they are half the price.
8. In the hospital, for many years there has been a hospital fund, where you can deduct one percent of your salary for health care in the future, but, as I understand, it is not popular among Uzhgorod residents.
9. The hospital personnel policy is biased, smart ones try different ways to keep the job, and there are many complaints about the chief doctor who seems to be primarily concerned about keeping his chair and panders to each new government.
10. Doctors should belong to the middle class of the nation, to be able to take care of the health of the nation. Why do doctors have such humiliating salary? When will the government have respect for junior medical staff and technicians? Many people belive that it is the mid-level staff that is on the brink of poverty, because doctors "are well off."
I demand from Uzhgorod City Council
1. To elect on the principle of democracy a new chief doctor of Uzhgorod City Clinical Hospital, as required by the Revolution of Dignity.
2. To review rates for treatment and to immediately begin major repair of the department of general therapy, so that Uzhgorod residents could be treated in normal conditions.
3. To create the hospital’s own pharmacy, where medicines, including low-cost ones would be sold, and to send the money of the hospital fund there.
All that is subject to scrutiny and comprehensive examination. The hospital will never have a good image with only one model department, but only as a single organism, where everyone works for a single cause. For this, we need to change ourselves and everything around us where there are signs of corruption and injustice. I know that the staff of the general treatment department convene the meeting of the staff for discussion. The work team are vessels of human lives, and they have the right to discuss the pros and cons of their work, and even more so – to demand elimination of injustice in a large hospital and to demand decent treatment for all. As an Uzhgorod resident, I wish them success in this, because I care for my hometown, including the hospital which functions for my taxes too and the problems of which I do not intend to ignore, but to help it get well as a separate public body, because we all need it as air. There is a cure for that in the soul of each of us – our dignity and conscience which should be on the side of justice.
So, this is a story on the eve of the Journalist Day which must be continued for the sake of change. It is not the first unusual Journalist Day for me: the work loves me very much. Happy Journalist Day, colleagues! Glory to Ukraine!".
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