Russian medical universities have increased enrollment by 10%, adding 3,000 places, but the targeted recruitment system faces significant challenges. Despite high competition for medical school places, the targeted recruitment system, which requires graduates to work in specific medical institutions (often in rural areas) in exchange for tuition, is struggling to attract students.

Last year, only 89% of the targeted training quota for medical specialties was filled, with some universities reporting 20% of targeted positions remaining vacant. This occurs despite a well-documented shortage of doctors.

Minister of Education and Science Valery Falkov acknowledged that graduates in targeted positions are often dissatisfied with low salaries. Many students prefer to take out loans rather than commit to these agreements.

Neurologist Semyon Galperin, president of the League for the Protection of Doctors, points out that doctors often work at 1.5 to 2 times the standard workload to earn a decent living, a problem that has persisted since Soviet times.

Online comments reveal widespread issues, including patients reporting financial exploitation, indifference from medical professionals, high staff turnover, and pervasive rudeness. One reader shared that they have spent a significant sum on their wife’s oncology treatment over eight years, while another described a therapist at a polyclinic who did not examine an elderly patient before writing a referral.

Readers are sharing experiences that illustrate a critical personnel decline, with common threads including high workloads, low salaries, and bureaucratic hurdles. A former local therapist recounted having a district three times larger than the norm due to doctor shortages and facing restrictions on tests and specialist consultations.