UrBC, Moscow, August 7, 2017. Russia needs 22,200 more physicians, GPs, and pediatrists at the moment to meet the population’s healthcare needs.

According to Zdorovie Fund, this is twice as many people as the Health Minister Veronica Skvortsova said were needed at her meeting with President Vladimir Putin on August 1. According to Skvortsova, the medical staff shortage was estimated at about 10,700 doctors.

The fund reports things are getting worse by the year. The overall number of physicians, general practitioners, and pediatrists shrank by 888 people between 2015 and 2016. There is also some shortage of narrow-field medical specialists.

‘Rosstat’s data for the end of 2016 we looked into indicate that only 4,800 oncologist positions out of the 5,700 openings at state-run clinics were actually filled. In fact, these positions were filled by 3,400 oncologists who all worked 1.4 monthly shifts on average. This is also the case with surgeons, where 7,000 doctors fill 9,200 positions out of 10,500 job openings), ophthalmologists (9,600 doctors fill 11,500 positions out of 13,200 openings), and so on,’ says the fund’s director Eduard Gavrilov.