In 2021, 700 doctors in Russia died because of coronavirus

As the director of the Scientific Research Institute of Occupational Medicine named after Academician N.F. Izmerov, the chief freelance specialist-occupational pathologist of the Ministry of Health Igor Bukhtiyarov, told reporters, the official statistics of occupational diseases of medical workers in the country are most likely greatly underestimated.

“The actual detection rate of occupational diseases in our country does not correspond to any common sense. 3.5 thousand (detection of occupational diseases of doctors), even taking into account 700 people who died this year from professional doctors, this is a drop in the ocean", - Kommersant quotes Bukhtiyarov as saying.

According to the expert, no more than 20 cases of occupational oncological diseases are recorded in Russia per year. This is about 0.32-0.55% in the general structure of the identified occupational pathologies. At the same time, in the overwhelming majority (from 73 to 78) regions of the country over the past 30 years, not a single case of occupational cancer has been recorded at all.

At the same time, many regions regularly receive complaints from patients, including doctors, about the unlawful, in their opinion, refusals of officials to officially recognize the facts of occupational diseases, and, therefore, to establish grounds for paying people monetary compensation for pathologies and ailments that have arisen at work.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, complaints about refusals to pay compensation payments due to infection with coronavirus among health workers from the "red zones" of covid departments of public hospitals have been repeatedly received. Sick doctors are often told by officials that they "got infected with covid anywhere but at work," hinting that when leaving the "red zones" doctors allegedly behave carelessly, forgetting to wear masks when traveling in public transport or when visiting grocery stores that are "breeding grounds for infection".

In accordance with current legislation, in case of infection with covid at work, the physician is entitled to the payment of insurance compensation, the amount of which depends on the severity of the illness. However, doctors are often deprived of the statutory monetary compensation for health compromised at work.

So, according to the trade union SOTSPROF, employees of the Kostroma Regional Clinical Hospital named after Korolev faced an illegal refusal to recognize the disease as occupational and to pay material compensation. The doctors managed to achieve the due payments only after going to court. According to the decision of the Sverdlovsk District Court, in favor of one of the doctors who fell ill with covid, it was possible to recover from the hospital a one-time insurance payment in the amount of 68,811 rubles, as well as compensation for moral damage in the amount of 5,000 rubles.