In the treatment of certain diseases in the West, technological solutions are used that are not available in Russia. First of all, this concerns chemotherapy in oncological diseases. However, how can one explain that sometimes people who can afford to be treated in any elite clinic in the world prefer a Russian surgeon? And why do some patients save up for years for an ordinary operation in Germany, which can be easily performed here?
The basic issue is trust. Seeking medical care in Europe, the patient receives not only smiling nurses, a polite doctor, coffee in bed and renovated rooms with toilets (although all this is important). He receives a strict standard, a “lower bar” of quality, a set of expensive equipment, and compliance with treatment protocols. Does it guarantee against complications? Any informed patient understands that it is not; moreover, European clinics are extremely cautious and in case of problems it is very difficult for them to make claims. However, this is “fool-proof”: the patient will not be cut off the left leg instead of the right, figuratively speaking.
For example, the German health care system, which is familiar to me from my training in Germany, a powerful machine, where every specialist turns into its well-oiled cog. Skilled hands protrude from this machine, which provide surgical care – the patient may never know who operated on him. When diagnostics are needed, everything that modern science is capable of will be used. And this is exactly what patients strive for when they go to Germany for treatment. They pay for quality they trust and don’t have to worry about.
High-quality healing, which in the West is a calm, regulated and highly paid work, in our country has the features of genuine heroism.
The traditions of Soviet medicine (and we, one way or another, come from there), sometimes controversial, but bright, is the realm of individuals, where each doctor is a little bit of a deity, omnipotent and powerful, at the same time a surgeon, therapist, psychologist and thinker, able to solve non-trivial problems, relying only on his knowledge and skills. After all, professional self-improvement in our country is not only not supported by the system, but runs counter to it. Do you want to read foreign magazines? Write at your own expense and read. Need conference tickets? Work and buy. Do you want to work according to the European standard? Please just explain this to an administration that is imposing something ancient and inadequate.
Does such a complex system promote the growth of individual highly qualified doctors? Certainly. And I have been convinced of this more than once, seeing the creative and bold decisions of Russian colleagues. The paradox is that high-quality healing, which in the West is a calm, regulated and highly paid work, in our country has the features of genuine heroism. It is perhaps not easy to exist in this system as a doctor, and sometimes risky as a patient.
What to do?
I think it makes sense for the patient to spend more effort on finding “their” doctor, the one that is suitable for solving a particular problem. And it remains for me and my colleagues to act according to the old principle “do what you must, and come what may.”