Before showing the prime minister around the hospital, Tatarstan Healthcare Minister Airat Farrakhov briefed Vladimir Putin on the republican programme for developing cardiovascular medicine, which has resulted in a 44% decline in the death rate from strokes.  

The hospital’s chief doctor Ildar Khairullin said that the hospital was opened in 1978 and was modernised in stages between 2009 and 2011. As a result of the modernisation the emergency ward developed into a multipurpose centre providing round-the-clock emergency, urgent and specialised medical assistance to the people of Naberezhnye Chelny and the whole North-East of the Republic. The hospital is now a centre for patients with acute cerebral circulation disorders, a centre for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer and an emergency centre for victims of road accidents.  

The chief doctor said that the hospital has 600 beds and a medical staff of 201. Between 500 and 600 people are referred to the hospital every day, which adds up to 142,000 a year.

The prime minister was told about the hospital’s information system and its reception wards. According to the chief doctor, all the reception wards have the so-called anti-shock rooms. One of these was shown to Vladimir Putin. The chief doctor also told the Prime Minister that some members of the staff had gone to foreign clinics for retraining and internships. The Prime Minister asked one of the staff members who had completed his internship abroad whose equipment was better. “At present ours is superior,” he replied.  

The prime minister also saw the angiography and CT wards at the time when one of the specialists was conducting a video consultation with a colleague from Kazan, with whom the Prime Minister talked briefly. “How often do you hold such consultations?” Vladimir Putin asked. “At least once a week,” the doctor replied.  

The prime minister also visited operating theatres, where the video display units showed an operation in progress, and a clinical diagnostic laboratory equipped with modern test instruments. The chief of the ward said that their equipment can carry out urgent tests within 15 minutes.  

While visiting the hospital Vladimir Putin was also briefed on the work of the sanitary service. “We are very understaffed that’s why we have divided the service, the junior medical personnel, into three parts and have created an internal transport service, a disinfection service as well as a social service,” the chief of the ward said. “You have thought everything out down to the last detail,” the prime minister remarked.

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While visiting the hospital Vladimir Putin was asked a question by a technician at a medical laboratory about support for families that give birth to a third child

Transcript:

Remark: Mr Putin, Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article about a question that worries me very much. I have two children, two girls, my husband dreams of having a son.  

Vladimir Putin: Great. I hope you share his plans.

Question: Will my family, which lives in Tatarstan, be eligible for an allowance for a third child? The birthrate in Tatarstan is high, and the article says that the allowance will be made available only in regions where the birthrate is low. Does it mean that the benefit will be available only in the Russian-speaking regions?

Vladimir Putin: All our regions are Russian-speaking regardless of who lives there: we are a multinational country. The assistance we offer to families that have decided to have a third child is indeed aimed at supporting the regions where demographics are in a poor state. All the nationalities, big and small, all the ethnic groups in Russia have absolutely equal rights. Absolutely. Numbers are irrelevant although we all understand very well that Russians account for about 80% of the country’s population. In Tatarstan how many of the 3.8 million people are Russian? I imagine about half of them, am I right?

Remark: 50%

Vladimir Putin: Incidentally, more Tatars live in other parts of the Russian Federation than in Tatarstan. That is why we draw no distinction, all are equal in this country, small peoples and large ones. By the way, Tatars are the second most numerous ethnic group in Russia. But I think you would agree with me that there is nothing wrong in supporting the Russian people considering that it has borne the brunt of various Soviet-era experiments: all kinds of resettlements, the Virgin Land drives, the war and so on. The main burden was shouldered by that group, the Russians. But I repeat, not a single of our programmes is based on the ethnic principle. We are planning to implement this programme as the need arises.  

In Tatarstan… I talked with the Health Minister and also with specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the morning before coming here: the average birth rate in the country per woman is 1.6 children (you understand what I mean). Tatarstan has the same birth rate as the country average – 1.6, perhaps slightly higher. But in the European part of Russia, in the north-west, in some parts of the Volga Area and in the Far East the demographic situation is very bad: it has been negative for a number of years. We will render assistance to these regions regardless of  ethnicity, to Russians, Tatars and representatives of other nationalities.  

For example, we invest more in developing the economy of the North Caucasus on a per capita basis, but this need not hurt or offend anyone because we must create local productive forces there and create jobs. In Chechnya unemployment runs at 49% and we must create jobs for them. But the birthrate there is high, so everything is normal in that way. However, in Central Russia, or for example in some parts of the Volga area or in the Far East the situation is bad. In the Far East we will pay benefits to everyone regardless of ethnicity. They have many representatives of small northern peoples and of course we should help them first of all. We must provide assistance on Sakhalin where the birthrate is very low. The situation on Sakhalin is similar to the Republic of Mari El, your neighbours here, where most of the population are Mari.

So, I would like to stress once again: this is not about ethnicity, but about the situation in this or that region. In general we are almost all relatives. I talked with the people from the Academy of Sciences today: the peoples of the former Soviet Union and today’s Russians have the largest number of mixed marriages in the world. Even the USA does not have as many mixed marriages between different ethnic groups as Russia. So to some extent we are all relatives, and we should not be divided into national and ethnic compartments but we should promptly react to problems in every region, problems that are most relevant to this or that region. That will be our policy. In addition we will of course deliver targeted assistance, above all to those who need such government assistance, and I think you would agree with me, it would be fair from the social point of view.

Remark: Thank you very much.