– In recent years we have systematically moved closer to eliminating staff shortages in the healthcare sector. There are selective recruitment projects in educational institutions, the “Zemstvo Doctor” and “Zemstvo Paramedic” programs. Young specialists receive lifting and accommodation certificates and receive compensation for rent. However, staff shortages persist. It is clear that training a qualified doctor is not a quick task, but the problem must be solved, emphasizes the head of the region.
Currently 52,000 doctors and paramedics work in the Sverdlovsk region. After the introduction of selective recruitment of governors for admission to the Ural Medical University, the shortage of specialists in hospitals and clinics was reduced by almost three times. The Sverdlovsk region was one of the first in the country to launch such a program.
In 2024, after graduating from medical school, 589 doctors returned to the hospitals that sent them for training. In 2025, the number of targeted students will increase to 657. In addition, the region is successfully implementing a specific training program for paramedical personnel: 1,666 aspiring paramedics and nurses started working in hospitals last summer, and in 2025, another 3,100 people will receive diplomas. As the Ministry of Health points out, the main thing is that young specialists understand that they are welcome and valued in their small homeland.
The availability of housing is a compelling argument for connecting your life and work activities with small settlements. Krasnoufimsk is one of the first cities in the region where they began to build social housing. In newly built high-rise buildings, some of the apartments will be allocated to doctors and teachers. And the regional hospital even organized a party in honor of 35 young doctors and paramedics. They were solemnly greeted with cakes, because the long-awaited specialists had significantly reinforced the staff of almost all departments of the Central District Hospital serving the most remote western region of the Middle Urals. But the doctors of the diagnostic service were in special demand. Millions of rubles from the regional budget were allocated to re-equip the health center with modern equipment, but there were not enough specialists prepared to master the most advanced technology. The diagnostic center is now fully operational.
In 2024, after graduating from medical university, 589 doctors returned to the hospitals that sent them for training.
But, according to professionals, the best way to address the shortage of doctors is to grow the workforce. For this reason, in the cities of the Urals they are concerned with training future doctors, starting from school. This academic year, medical classes have been opened in nine schools in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sukhoi Log, Kushva, Degtyarsk, Karpinsk, Kachkanar, Turinsk and other cities. 90 million rubles have been allocated for its equipment;
Taking into account those opened in previous years, there are 50 medicine classes in schools in the region. Even medical students can envy the classroom equipment. Digital laboratories for biology, physiology and chemistry are available to high school students, schoolchildren examine microorganisms under a microscope, and computer mannequins help to study human structure.
– It is from the school where the professional orientation of our students begins. Everything is aimed at solving the problem of supplying medical personnel in the Sverdlovsk region,” says Olga Kovtun, rector of the Ural State Medical University.
