Russian doctors "take to the streets": Putin's imperfect plan?

(Baonghean.vn) - The rise of Russia today reminds people of the time of the Tsars or the time when the Soviet Union was in its heyday, Russia seemed to have the position of a great power with only one worthy opponent, or no one at all. However, prolonging the prosperous period in the modern world is not easy at all. The shortcomings and difficulties within Russian society are telling. The incident of thousands of doctors dragging coffins down the street on November 30 to protest Mr. Putin's reform plan is an example.

In recent weeks, a number of newspapers and social networking sites have hinted at the possibility that Mr. Putin will fire Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. It would be a "shocking" event if the "most united power couple" in the history of the country were to have problems. This may not be true, but it is clear that Mr. Alexei Kudrin - former Russian finance minister, currently Chairman of the Committee for Civic Initiatives, spoke on the sidelines of the All-Russian Civic Forum on November 22. The basis for Mr. Kudrin to mention this is the economic crisis in Russia, first and foremost the weak economic indicators. In a very professional manner of a long-time financial worker, Mr. Kudrin said that Russia's fate does not depend on the war and what happens in the trenches, but depends primarily on economic indicators. The complicated situation in Ukraine, Western sanctions and the crisis knocking on Russia's door allow public opinion to think a lot about Mr. Kudrin's words. But the difficulties do not stop there.

Internet photo

Shortly after Kudrin’s statement, on November 30, more than 1,000 Russian doctors, nurses and patients marched through Moscow with coffins to protest against plans to reform the health system. This was not an easy thing for Putin, because he was the one behind this decision. In 2012, when he returned to the Kremlin to take power, Putin proposed this reform plan.

It should also be added that even those who took to the streets still recognized the need to reform to modernize the health system, but not by closing hospitals or firing doctors and medical staff. The proposed reform is very reasonable, that it is necessary and reasonable to merge small hospitals that lack the conditions to provide medical services into large hospital centers that are capable of treating many diseases. But in reality, that policy has been exploited by some officials to "clear the land" of "golden lands" to hand over to the private sector, while doctors and medical staff lose their jobs, and patients have difficulty finding a place to be treated because hospitals are overloaded.

The demand of the protesters is that the government must stop the current reform and organize a dialogue between the parties before continuing the plan. This is clearly an imperfect manifestation of President Putin's plan to reform the health sector. At the same time, it also shows that the trust of health workers and patients in the Russian government is cracking. Especially in these protests, some slogans and banners are no longer professional, but have shown signs of political dissent such as: "Save money for war, but not for doctors". Newspapers said that many protesters said that government officials prioritized profits over people's health when planning health sector reform.

Clearly, Putin has an imperfect plan for healthcare, although his initial idea was very good!

Chi Linh Son