Private clinics in Russia will start to be awarded stars

At the end of the year, the Federation Council's Committee on Regulations and Organization of Parliamentary Activities held a round table devoted to the problems of protecting the rights of consumers who seek medical services at private clinics. In addition to senators and public figures, it was attended by officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor. At the meeting, in particular, they discussed negative trends in this segment. "Izvestia" has familiarized itself with the minutes on its results.

Thus, the number of people's complaints against private medical organizations is growing in the Russian Federation: in the first nine months of 2024, their number jumped by 15.5% to 13.8 thousand, as calculated by the "Public Consumer Initiative" (PCI) on the basis of official statistics, which the authorities have not yet disclosed. First of all, we are talking about comments on the work of medical personnel. In the Russian Federation there are 73.5 thousand private polyclinics, while the state ones are much less - 26.3 thousand organizations.

Moreover, in the minutes of the Federation Council mentions that in the third quarter of 2024 Roszdravnadzor conducted 1.4 thousand inspections, 12% of them - in private organizations. Almost every one of them (93%) showed that non-state clinics violate mandatory requirements, nine out of ten medical organizations allow it, the document says.

As a result of the meeting, Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor, as well as OPI instructed to create a methodology for evaluating private clinics that provide paid services. We are talking about the rating, which in practice is realized as a star system, similar now operates in relation to hotels. These can be both stars themselves and letter designations - A, B, C or other benchmarks.

"Now the supervisory authorities are limited in their actions: for example, due to the moratorium on inspections, regulators cannot penalize violators. Therefore, it is important to create a system of incentives for clinics that do not violate the rules. A correct assessment requires a methodology, which we are currently developing. It will be based on the assessment of compliance with mandatory requirements: the availability of a license, disclosure of mandatory information to consumers, as well as analysis of the performance indicators of a medical institution - it's turnover, staffing levels and so on," Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative, told Izvestia.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Market assessment: private clinics will start awarding stars for the quality of services