LESSONS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC FOR RUSSIAN HEALTHCARE

The COVID-19 pandemic in all countries continues to have a huge impact on all spheres of life — the economy, demographics, health and psychological mood of people. In the Russian Federation in 2020 relative to 2019 there was a very high rate of additional mortality from all causes per 1 million population (23% higher than in Poland, almost 40% higher than in the USA, 5 times higher than in Germany). And this trend continued in 2021, in which the supermortality amounted to 647 thousand people (+36% by 2019). Based on a comparison with 11 countries of the world, the article substantiates 8 main factors that could affect high mortality rates in the Russian Federation and formulates recommendations to prevent such a situation in the future. The main reasons for excess mortality in the Russian Federation: poor readiness for massive infectious threats, long-term underfunding of the health care system, combined with a shortage of bed capacity and medical personnel, decentralization and insufficient coordination of management in the fight against the pandemic, lack of systematic information work with the population, ineffective vaccination campaign, insufficient measures to limit social contacts and the commitment of the population to them during the second and third waves of the pandemic. To restore and ensure the preparedness of the healthcare system in the Russian Federation for pandemics, the main condition is an increase in General Government funding for healthcare to at least 5% of GDP. Additional funds should be aimed at strengthening the human resources of the industry and the infectious diseases service. It is necessary to recreate, under the leadership of the Ministry of Health of Russia, a system of early preparedness for emergencies by creating a unified Emergency Management Center under the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and to develop a Government program in this direction.