68% of Russian doctors are pessimistic about the possibility of reforming the pay system in the healthcare industry, according to a survey conducted by the RNC Pharma analyst company and the platform for doctors Medvestnik. 59% of them “do not believe the situation can change at all” and another 9% think that “those who wanted a decent salary left the state healthcare a long time ago.”

28% of the respondents express cautious optimism. However, about 19% of them note that “they do not expect rapid changes because the reform will take several years”, and only 9% “hope the situation changes for the better, since it is necessary to attract young specialists to the industry.” Around 1% of the doctors are completely satisfied with their income level. We can assume those are part of the management team or just select healthcare facilities with a fair remuneration system.

Most of those who opted for their own answer fear that the situation could only turn for the worse with the reform. One of the respondents said, “They will always manage to find loopholes not to pay.” We should note that the answer options did not have statistically significant differences in gender, age or place of residence of the study participants, which means that the problem is of a federal nature.

Fig. What do you expect from the pilot project to implement a new pay system in the healthcare industry, which is set to launch in November 2021? (single-answer question)