Health Department sees no alternative to QR-codes for baby food

Irina Gratsinskaya

Let us briefly recall the background. An experiment on the introduction of QR-codes to receive preferential fermented milk products for children started in December 2021. Then the Moscow Health Department issued order No. 1240 with a long and vague title “On Improving the Organization of the Provision of Free Food”, which included a provision on the QR code. On the Web, many regarded this as an infringement of rights and coercion to "digital slavery".

After some time, parents of kids in Moscow faced a problem: they were denied access to milk distribution points when distributing dairy products purchased at the expense of the city budget. QR-codes are required for every child, even for a newborn. As a result, some parents refuse this for various reasons and do not receive baby food. In a publication dated December 6, we dwelled in detail on the views of parents regarding the total introduction of Quar codes for “milk”. However, the Department of healthcare turned out to have its own arguments, which we considered it necessary to analyze point by point.

1. “ The introduction of modern digital technologies makes it possible to simplify the system for providing Moscow residents with preferential food products, relieves them of unnecessary administrative procedures and significantly saves time. Now Muscovites have the opportunity to independently choose a conveniently located milk distribution point and a schedule for receiving food, including setting the frequency of receiving preferential meals (one-time, weekly, twice a month), viewing information on the volume of products to be distributed”, - approved in the response of the Moscow Health Department.

From the comments of parents in social networks.

Olga Agapova : “I have issued it and have already encountered inconvenience. Initially, there is no longer a choice by date. Choosing a convenient day or changing it is not as easy as they describe. Only in the first six days from the beginning of the month. And if I issued a code, for example, on the 8th, then nothing can be changed, only the way it is generated by the program. And suddenly I get sick that day, how then can I get it? .. For my family, the past conditions for receiving food were more convenient. The only advantage of this decision is that you don’t have to go to the doctor for a prescription”.

dangerrose says: “Something tough. What if you fell ill there or forgot? Everything? Are you without food? I wrote the 5th, but I'm not sure that I will come on the 5th. And for December, I already have it in the system, it shows me mos.ru (I didn’t draw it up, apparently automatically), it says to come once a week and the exact numbers! This is where it comes from…”

2. From the response of the Moscow Health Department. “...Also false is the information about the impossibility of applying for food for a newborn due to a temporary MHI policy. To use the service, you need to be attached to a city clinic, have a valid or temporary compulsory medical insurance policy issued in Moscow, as well as permanent registration in the capital. If meals are issued for a child, the details of the child must be entered into the personal account on mos.ru in advance”.

And again, awkward. On paper, everything seems to be so, but the system works according to some of its own rules, not controlled by the department.

Olga Grebenyuk, a mother of many children, who turned to the editor: “A newborn does not have a policy for some time, but this does not deprive him of the right to receive food according to a paper doctor's report! Which for some reason is not true.

From social media posts.

Margarita Savelyeva writes on VKontakte: “Mos.ru does not allow a newborn to issue a dairy kitchen, since the MHI policy is temporary. And on the site they ask you to enter the policy number of a new or old model ... There is no function for introducing a temporary policy. I called the hotline of dairy kitchens in Moscow, explained the situation ... They didn’t know what to answer and hung up the phone.

There are problems with obtaining preferential baby food for other categories of citizens.

From messages VKontakte:

Svetlana Ryazanova: “Tell me please, maybe someone knows. I can’t apply for myself as a nursing mother until the 6th month”

Veronika Nastyushkina : "I have the same problem"

Tatyana Obukhova : “I have the same thing... Where do you even go with this? Or everything, forget about milk?

3.From the response of the Moscow Health Department. “ The recipients of food products are families with children, that is, the audience most adapted to the use of digital services: in electronic form, they already receive a lot of services for families with children, in particular, payments for children, enrollment in kindergarten, compensation for parental fees, etc. However, it is important to note that in the absence of the possibility of independently filling out an interactive application form on the Portal, citizens can apply to any of the My Documents public service centers.

Well, there are a lot of questions here. According to our readers, consultants at the MFC themselves do nothing and do not fill out.

Olga Grebenyuk, mother of many children: “In the MFC, a citizen arranges everything himself. At most, an employee of the MFC will stand next to him and say which buttons to press. And this does not exclude errors! I personally experienced! An employee of the MFC has no right to do something in your profile. You must have it or create it, and then you will be helped to press the buttons. I can send a video.

Listen, what if a person is generally against entering their personal data and data on their children into the mos.ru system?! If he is against his data being leaked, it is not known to whom where?! Against unknown people getting his phone number, and then various people constantly calling with dubious offers - either to receive treatment at a paid dentistry, or to change windows, or to report their bank card number.

Olga Grebenyuk, a mother of many children, who turned to the editors of NI: “This system is not convenient for me. I deleted all my children's data after carefully reading the user agreement on mos.ru. I am not satisfied with a number of points. Clause 2.5 of this agreement reads: 2.5. “If the User disagrees with any of the requirements for the service, the information system of the city of Moscow… the user is not entitled to use the service.” I do not agree, and therefore, I do not have the right to use it. I used to use mos.ru, fill in the data, but they periodically fly off, and in order to draw up something, I need to re-enter the data of all the children, my husband, mine (since the first children were not born in Moscow). The instability of the mos system bothers me a lot. ru, cross-border data transfer, illegal collection and storage of my family's personal data on electronic resources. And I spend too much time filling out electronic applications, this should be done by those who receive a salary from the budget for this.

“There must be an alternative. If someone likes it, let him get preferential baby food through mos.ru. But if it is not convenient for someone, why infringe on the rights of such citizens? But there are a lot of them! In addition, medical referrals should be issued by a doctor, but in this case, he is replaced by the portal of the mayor of Moscow. But our mayor is not a doctor! Thus, article 52 of the Federal Law-323 "On the protection of the health of citizens" is violated. If the doctor has given an opinion, no one, even the mayor, can challenge it”, - lawyer Ruslan Trofimov believes.

4. The letter from the Department of Health states: “With regard to paper applications, we inform you that the issuance of paper conclusions for free food distribution is indeed carried out for women who are not attached to a medical organization. Due to the peculiarities of recording such applications and verifying the rights of applicants to receive this support measure, there is a format for applying for a measure of social support, which implies the need for a systematic personal visit to a medical organization to obtain a paper doctor's report with the presentation of the appropriate set of documents".

But the problem is that, according to parents, certificates on paper are no longer accepted in many dairy distribution points. At all. Our editors have at their disposal a video in which Anna Bezhnar, head of the pediatric department of DGP No. 86 in Moscow, tears into small pieces a paper referral issued by a doctor to a mother of many children, Olga Grebenyuk. By the way, a lot of statements were written to law enforcement agencies about this, but no substantive answer was given. The predictable response was the same type of replies, which officials send out with enviable zeal to a variety of structures, without trying to delve into the specific problems of quite specific people.