The final board of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation was held on Friday, April 16. During the event, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko summed up the results of the Board’s work for 2020 and outlined the main tasks in the field of health care for 2021.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent a greeting to the board members, in which he noted that Russia is coping with the challenges of the pandemic more successfully than other countries. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova took part in the final board of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The event was also attended by the heads of subordinated establishment, regional executive authorities in the field of healthcare. Dagestan was represented at the meeting by the Rector of DSMU Suleiman Mamaev and the Minister of Health of the Republic of Dagestan Tatyana Belyaeva.

“In 2020, history sounded the alarm, calling on doctors to fight one of the most serious threats in the last hundred years – the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an unprecedented challenge that brought together medical professionals, volunteers, non-profit organizations, and manufacturers of medical products to solve a common task – to repel coronavirus infection,” Mikhail Murashko began his report.

In the context of the pandemic, almost 2.5 thousand medical organizations were involved in providing medical care to patients with coronavirus, and during the period of the maximum rise in the incidence of the disease, 1.3 million people were provided assistance simultaneously.

Fundamentally new, according to the Minister, was the approach formed by the Ministry of Health to the organization of care for covid, based on the application of two documents — the Temporary Order of organization and provision of medical care, approved by Order No. 198n, and the Temporary guidelines “Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)”.

“These acts were continuously updated taking into account the emergence of new data on approaches to the treatment of coronavirus: today, the 12th edition of the Temporary Order and the 10th edition of the Temporary Guidelines are in effect,” Mikhail Murashko said.

He also stressed that due to the need to urgently respond to the challenges of the pandemic, the Russian Ministry of Health has adopted more than 50 acts, and this is without taking into account changes and Government orders.

“One of the principal tasks was to assist the regions in building up medical care for coronavirus-this is actually an individual adjustment of the system. The remote advisory centers of anesthesiology and resuscitation established by the Ministry on the basis of leading federal institutions have conducted more than 31 thousand consultations,” Mikhail Murashko said.

The mobilization of medical staff, the opening of new hospitals and the creation of “dual-use beds”, the rapid training of doctors, working with huge amounts of primary data in almost real time-all this last year allowed us to create the necessary margin of safety of the health system, which allowed us not to suffer from a shortage of beds, ventilators, and medical specialists even at peak loads.

At the same time, Mikhail Murashko stressed that it is too early to talk about a way out of the pandemic, and the final results will be summed up later.

All last year, medical care was provided not only to patients with coronavirus infection, but also to patients with chronic noncommunicable diseases. Assistance to patients with cardiovascular and cancer diseases in Russia did not stop even during periods of significant increase in the incidence of coronavirus infection. The Minister also recalled that Russia is among the first countries that the WHO plans to exclude from the list of countries with a high pressure of tuberculosis.

At the end of the speech, Mikhail Murashko noted that a lot remains to be done.

“First of all, it is necessary to ensure that at least 60% of the adult population is covered by specific prevention of coronavirus infection – the task for 2021,” Mikhail Murashko stressed.

The Minister also thanked all those who helped the Ministry of Health of Russia to solve the tasks set in 2020 — Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, the Administration of the President of Russia and the Office of the Government of Russia, members of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, colleagues from federal and regional state authorities, as well as representatives of social movements, trade unions, patient and other organizations.