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Volunteers Give Weary Russian Doctors a Lift to House Calls Amid Virus Surge
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December 9, 2020
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1:12Now PlayingAs the coronavirus resurgence hit Russia this autumn, one of the most common complaints from people with virus symptoms who are self-isolating at home are that visiting doctor services have been taking days to arrive.
Record-breaking numbers of confirmed infections, that significantly exceeded those reported in the spring, strained the country's health care system to its limits, leaving thousands of doctors all across Russia inundated with house calls.
In late September, the Irkutsk region in southern Siberia was reporting around 80 new coronavirus cases a day.
By December, the number more than tripled, surpassing 270 every 24 hours.
Physicians in outpatient facilities had to tend to those who were self-isolating at home with mild or moderate symptoms and needed to take a test or get treatment recommendations.
Most often, medical workers had to go on foot, as their clinics didn't have enough cars to go around.
The situation changed when a group of volunteers came to the rescue, offering a simple service of driving medical workers to their house visits.
Vadim Kostenko, 37-year-old entrepreneur who came up with the initiative, said that doctors were able to visit 70% more patients when they had someone to drive them than when they went on foot.
Kostenko called on people to join him in driving medical workers to their house calls in early October, after speaking to doctors and local health officials about what he could do to help.
Within a little more than two weeks, there were 22 cars and over 100 volunteers helping out local doctors with house calls.
By December, the project called Let's Help Doctors Together had grown to involve more than 3,000 volunteers in 10 Russian regions.
In Irkutsk alone, more than 500 volunteers have assisted with some 10,000 house calls since October, Kostenko said.
Volunteers work in accordance with a schedule agreed upon with local hospitals and health officials.
Some people dedicate a full day to it, some come out for several hours, and those who want to help but can't drive themselves for some reason donate money for gas.
Russia has reported nearly 2.5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus — the fourth largest caseload in the world — and over 43,500 deaths.
The country's authorities have shunned imposing a second lockdown or widespread closure of businesses even as new infections soared, hitting record highs almost daily.
Numerous accounts of medical workers and media reports show that Russia's health care system is under significant strain.
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