Alexey Navalny is being treated at the Charite. What kind of clinic it is

Yelena Ivanova, Berlin

In Russian social networks, the Charite clinic is presented in a completely distorted light - Navalny, they say, is in a "hospital for the poor".

“When the wave that “We urgently need to take Navalny to Europe for treatment!!” came, while mentally agreeing with the main thesis, at the same time I was quietly surprised: damn it, why in “Charite”?? - writes one of LiveJournal users. - And the more they told us about it, the more doubts she caused - starting from her main title "The largest clinic in Europe". An immodest question is: "the largest means good?" Over 100 individual clinics and institutes located in 4 districts of Berlin are included into the clinic's complex. The clinic annually receives about 130 thousand patients per year for inpatient treatment and 1 million outpatient". A hospital, in general, for 130 thousand people! This is some kind of even not a factory, but a whole repair PLANT! Not that mass, but super-mass production "from sick to healthy"! The scale, of course, is impressive (we have, as I understand it, there is nothing even remotely similar); but, on the other hand, it remains unclear - but what is the SENSE? After all, mass production is mass production. Consumer goods. This is not an exclusive, not manual work - the conveyor method is inevitable, there is no other way to make a mass product, at one time Ford discovered this and made a fortune for himself. While good doctors are also inevitably piece goods, Navalny, in other words, was thrown onto the conveyor belt. True, the assembly line is German - which, of course, is in itself a guarantee of quality; but quality versus what? Yes, with us!"

However, the Charite is not just a hospital in the center of Berlin. For Germany, Charite is a symbol of medicine. In 1710, at about the same time as the construction of St. Petersburg, an anti-plague hospital was created in Berlin. It marked the beginning of the 300-year history of the clinic. Remember Koch's wand? Robert Koch worked at the Charite. And now the institute named after him is at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In Europe, the most advanced medicine is closely associated with universities, since such a connection makes it possible to maintain and develop the highest standards of treatment and the introduction of new methods. The uniqueness of the Charite is that it is associated not with one, but with two universities in Germany. After World War II, Germany and Berlin were divided. The main Charite campus remained in the eastern zone and was part of the Humboldt University. In the west of Berlin, two other clinics arose that collaborated with the Free University of Berlin. After the unification of Germany, these clinics were merged into one medical complex, which became a medical research and training center for two universities at once. The numbers are impressive - 290 professors treat, teach and research at the Charite.

Charite has made a name for itself in the world as a place where severe infectious patients such as Ebola are treated. There are only 30 Ebola beds in Germany, 20 of them in the Charite.

Russian oligarchs and Arab sheikhs - many of them come to Berlin when they need top-class medical care. Sharita is no stranger to treating politicians. Chancellor Angela Merkel underwent hip surgery here. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier donated one kidney to his sick wife, and the operation took place here. Yulia Tymoshenko underwent spinal surgery when she refused to receive treatment in Ukraine for fear of being killed. Two years ago, the chief physician of the Charite, Professor Kai-Uwe Eckardt, saved Pyotr Verzilov from poisoning him with unknown substances.

For Alexei Navalny, this is certainly a blessing. In the absence of a diagnosis and treatment strategy, any highly competent opinion and experience will decide his fate and increase the chances of recovery. Yes, a large hospital is not always convenient for patients with a diagnosis, as doubters write about it in social networks. But you can be sure that everything that Charite possesses will be used to treat “political patient number one”: equipment, methods, scientific developments, experience. Everything you need and can check, check. In addition, the public will be informed of whatever the doctors discover. The first briefing on the patient's condition tomorrow. If after two days of forced stay in Omsk it will be possible to find out what caused this tragedy, no "men in black" will interfere with this.

P.S. Movie fans also remember the Charite clinic from the cult series Seventeen Moments of Spring. It was there that the radio operator Kat gave birth.