SP: rehabilitation equipment purchased under the federal project often sits idle

In total, the federal project's expenses, which started in 2022, amounted to about 18-19 billion rubles annually, including funds (about 9-10 billion rubles per year) allocated for additional financing of medical rehabilitation under compulsory medical insurance. For more information on the Accounts Chamber's observations on the adequacy of the volume of medical rehabilitation in Russia, please follow the link .

The Federal Project, as the Accounts Chamber found out, has generally increased the level of equipment in the medical rehabilitation departments of regional clinics by more than 20% and reduced equipment depreciation by 15%, but in some regions there are still problems with equipment and the effective use of already purchased equipment.

In 2023, for example, 139 medical organizations were actually equipped, which is only 72.4% of the planned value established in the federal project passport.

Often, such results are caused by difficulties with commissioning the equipment. This was caused by violation of equipment delivery deadlines by suppliers, including due to disruption of logistics chains, sanctions by unfriendly countries, and, less often, the unwillingness of the clinics themselves to accept the equipment.

An in-depth analysis of the SP, based on information from 53 regions and 49 federal clinics, showed that some of the equipment already in the clinics is used at partial capacity or is idle. The main reasons for this are low demand for the equipment, including due to its narrow specialization; lack of patients, as well as the presence of contraindications for the use of this or that equipment; the need for medical personnel and beds in inpatient rehabilitation departments; the need to carry out repairs in the premises for the installation of purchased equipment and the acquisition of consumables; the use of certain types of medical equipment (products) only in cases of emergency medical care, etc.

The Accounts Chamber, having studied the data in detail, saw that 524 units of medical equipment worth a total of 333 million rubles were idle in medical organizations in 29 regions, and 32 units worth 12 million rubles in federal medical centers.

In 13 regions, the majority – 349 units of equipment (products) worth a total of 209 million rubles – are not used due to the lack of medical personnel, as well as the need for major repairs of the premises to install specialized equipment.

The auditors found that there is indeed a shortage of medical personnel in every third region, where the level of staffing of medical rehabilitation departments with medical personnel is less than 70%. The most in-demand specialties include physical and rehabilitation medicine doctors, medical rehabilitation nurses, exercise therapy instructors, massage and physical therapy nurses, and psychologists.

The Government and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation were recommended to develop and approve professional standards for the specialties of "medical speech therapist", "physical rehabilitation specialist" and "ergorehabilitation specialist". The auditors also proposed to include in the federal project a target indicator providing for an increase in the share of purchased domestic equipment (currently, the costs of purchasing Russian and foreign rehabilitation equipment are approximately equal).

The federal project "Medical rehabilitation optimal for health restoration" with a budget of about 95 billion rubles continues in 2025-2030 as part of the national project "Long and active life". By 2030, the main goal of the federal project states, the number of patients who received medical rehabilitation after illnesses and injuries will be increased by 26.5%. The overall goal of the project, announced in 2021, remains relevant - to equip and re-equip more than 1,350 specialized departments and 130 day hospitals of Russian clinics by 2030.