Soviet medicine was worse than Western analogues during 1970-1990. Not much worse, but something like 0.7-0.8 of the Western technological capabilities.
Another question is - was it more accessible? You see, much of the russian problems takes root in the infrastructure. Country is extremely huge. Maintaining adequate coverage in the every area was the main target of soviet medicine system.
I live in Nizhny Novgorod, former Gorky city. Now it's 3th or 5th most populated city in the Russia. In our town we have three or four federal medicine centers: emergency medicine, disasters medicine, burn injury medicine etc. During late Soviet times (1975 and later) there were built several helipads for emergency transportation needs. Now this helipads are neglected and unusable - it's much cheaper, but, of course, much time-consuming to use transportation by cars. In the Gorky district were many small towns with their own medicine helipads. It was usual to transport somebody injured for 100-150 km, gasoline was cheap and state subsidied this efforts.
Now another modern plague is "restructurisation" and "centralisation". It's another name for cost reduction. Imagine the entire district. Every town and big village has it's own local hospital. Now the authorities are closing every 3-4 local hospitals and they opens ONE centralised hospital center instead. Of course, it's more supported and effective, but... more distant. You need to spent entire day just travelling to reception. And another day to the doctor. And another day to receive the analysis resullt or medical reports. And there is queues. Entire human wave from this towns are waiting for their turn. Your guaranteed secondary health care time is significantly decreased: queues can't wait, you must move quickly, doctors are overbusy, because personnel is cut off too.
And this kind of situation is everywhere - post offices became liquidated or agglomerated, local culture centers, schools and entire social infrastructure are merging in the name of economy. Small towns without their own cultire centers, schools or hospitals begans to wither and die.
Personally I'm in on the bright side - I live in the giant city. My own opportunities rose significantly, amount of modern medical aid too, but this is only for the big cities. I can understand someone who was frustrated by soviet healthcare system - yes, it was not so modern, but it was virtually everywhere, and almost everyone could receive equal help. I heard stories about my relatives who had cancer or kidney disfunction - and they could receive the modern help for granted (including transportation and rehabilitation in Moscow or republican capitals). Maybe you could not just stump up and receive immediate first-class help, but the entire system was created for mass treatment, not the single causes.
I still cannot decide what's better - not so technically advanced, but still effective medical help round the every corner or the entire might of modern medicine, but marred with the your own money, transport or infrastructure problems.
no subject
Soviet medicine was worse than Western analogues during 1970-1990. Not much worse, but something like 0.7-0.8 of the Western technological capabilities.
Another question is - was it more accessible?
You see, much of the russian problems takes root in the infrastructure. Country is extremely huge. Maintaining adequate coverage in the every area was the main target of soviet medicine system.
I live in Nizhny Novgorod, former Gorky city. Now it's 3th or 5th most populated city in the Russia. In our town we have three or four federal medicine centers: emergency medicine, disasters medicine, burn injury medicine etc. During late Soviet times (1975 and later) there were built several helipads for emergency transportation needs. Now this helipads are neglected and unusable - it's much cheaper, but, of course, much time-consuming to use transportation by cars. In the Gorky district were many small towns with their own medicine helipads. It was usual to transport somebody injured for 100-150 km, gasoline was cheap and state subsidied this efforts.
Now another modern plague is "restructurisation" and "centralisation". It's another name for cost reduction. Imagine the entire district. Every town and big village has it's own local hospital. Now the authorities are closing every 3-4 local hospitals and they opens ONE centralised hospital center instead. Of course, it's more supported and effective, but... more distant. You need to spent entire day just travelling to reception. And another day to the doctor. And another day to receive the analysis resullt or medical reports. And there is queues. Entire human wave from this towns are waiting for their turn. Your guaranteed secondary health care time is significantly decreased: queues can't wait, you must move quickly, doctors are overbusy, because personnel is cut off too.
And this kind of situation is everywhere - post offices became liquidated or agglomerated, local culture centers, schools and entire social infrastructure are merging in the name of economy. Small towns without their own cultire centers, schools or hospitals begans to wither and die.
Personally I'm in on the bright side - I live in the giant city. My own opportunities rose significantly, amount of modern medical aid too, but this is only for the big cities. I can understand someone who was frustrated by soviet healthcare system - yes, it was not so modern, but it was virtually everywhere, and almost everyone could receive equal help. I heard stories about my relatives who had cancer or kidney disfunction - and they could receive the modern help for granted (including transportation and rehabilitation in Moscow or republican capitals). Maybe you could not just stump up and receive immediate first-class help, but the entire system was created for mass treatment, not the single causes.
I still cannot decide what's better - not so technically advanced, but still effective medical help round the every corner or the entire might of modern medicine, but marred with the your own money, transport or infrastructure problems.