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Belarusian Medical Professional: Two Weeks Can Make a Difference

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Belarusian Medical Professional: Two Weeks Can Make a Difference

Today, the army and workers have the floor.

The Indian variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Belarus. It is highly contagious. At the same time, there is a serious shortage of health professionals in the country. What is the Belarusian health care system like today? Doctor Alexei Nosov answers questions of Charter97.org:

- The authorities do not know what to do. The authorities, in particular, the health care system, are guided by the image of the "beloved" and the "only", but he does not know what to do about the epidemic of COVID-19. So, they rush from vaccines to nihilism. First total denial, then they say it is dangerous, then they deny it, then they talk about the need for vaccines. It's chaos.

Quite many people are dying. If initially it was somehow regarded from the point of view of humanity, now, let them die. That is the worst part of the situation.

Measures will not be taken because, firstly, specialists are leaving, i.e. human resources are decreasing. Secondly, the technical base is not very good, so the problems will continue for a long time.

- For more than a year, we have been witnessing the situation when the authorities either dismiss qualified doctors or force them to leave the country. How serious is the shortage of medical workers in the country today?

- There is a huge shortage of doctors. In the regions, roughly speaking, a nurse is considered a doctor, and a specialist, because there are no others. People come to the nurse and ask for treatment. The bulk of these medical professionals do not have the enormous experience and capacity and ability to improvise, which is quite important in medicine.

The situation is disastrous; it will get worse. Apart from those doctors who have been repressed, many colleagues observe working conditions and ordered nature. A superior comes to work with a whip and starts ordering. People realise that they haven't gone out to protest, but reprisals are also used against them. These doctors also move to other countries. By Belarusian standards, many doctors are being consulted on emigration and the possibility of confirming their diplomas abroad.

- From the 1st of August payments to the medical workers in the "red zone" will be reduced. What is a reason? After all, COVID-19 continues to mutate and pose a huge risk.

- The system does not have enough money. Our blue-fingered has not enough money for the riot police, soon there will not be enough money for pensions and, of course, for medical staff. He will cut those who are silent.

Since the majority of the doctors do not react much, they fall into the category of "neutrals", and Lukashenka will shut them up. The same yabatkas, including many doctors, will suffer from it. Still, I urge educated people to use their heads, in particular, my colleagues, and to think over the situation. One can still make a difference.

- How would you assess the current mood of doctors? What does upset them most?

- I don't even know where to start. Working conditions, salaries, patient-doctor relations. People need explanations, as not everyone has a higher education and not everyone has finished secondary school. Few people understand that a doctor is neither God nor a slave.

We need to start reforms from below. I hope we will win this battle and we will do it fast because there are very good reform programs. Everything will come back to normal very fast.

- Can this situation with the medical professionals turn into a protest?

- When it all started, the second breath was the doctors' protest. The medical workers showed their strength. It started with their protest on Dzerzhinskogo Avenue, near the medical university, when the brutal dispersals stopped.

When the carrots of the authorities shrink to the size of a mole, then the guys with the spanners will think it's worth going on strike.

Nobody calls on them to destroy anyone physically, i.e. to some kind of extremism, but to sit without a full fridge for a fortnight, I think, is fine. The revolution is essentially about sacrifice. A lot of people have sacrificed their health and lives. Others have to sacrifice at least economically and the two kilos that they will lose in those two weeks.

Everything can be fundamentally changed during this time, especially at backbone enterprises. So the floor goes to the army and the workers, the medical professionals will be waiting, they will always join the process very quickly.

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