One of my working days

One of my working daysJust a usual work day of a district pediatrician in a city which is shelled on a daily basis. We had enough doctors before but some doctors left the city because of the war, so I am working on three districts - for three doctors. Some patient voices:

Patient: "May I come in?"

Doctor: "Welcome, come in, what happened to you?"

Patient: "I want you to put my child on record. We moved here."

Doctor: "Okay. Let's get his medical records. Where are you from?"

Patient: "Kremlin Avenue. (Settlement October mine*)."

Patients come from everywhere: Petrovka*, Spartac*, Putilovka*, again Putilovka*, Gornyak (Miner)*, Azotniy*, Putilovka*, Petrovka*, Krasnogorovka*, Avdeevka*.

In the early summer many people were from Mar’inka* - and they all remained here, in my district.

Their voices are ringing from tears:

"Our house is intact yet, my mother’s house down the street was demolished."

"Blown."

"Today I went after things - again, barely managed to escape."

"When a house next door blew off the roof, I decided to leave."

"Our house burned down. (Mother and her five-year-old daughter are laughing). The main thing is that we are safe and rescued the cat." (A clever mother, well done. Her daughter hasn’t got post-traumatic neurosis)

"We were shelled every day, I cannot stand it any longer.

"I'm afraid even to send him (the son) to school."

"Don't be afraid, it's quiet here. Not a single shell splinter fell."

"All the same, I'm afraid, I'm afraid of any noise."

Patient: "We do not have the medical records, will you take us?"

Doctor: "Don't worry, I'll take you. We’ll make new records, get the paperwork to the school and kindergarten. Everything will be solved."

Other patient: "We have moved, will you take us?"

I don't send them to the chief, as I should. I just type them in the census, take the records if they have one and make new records for those who haven't.

In my opinion, they are already more than those who left early in the summer.

Today: another shelling. Nothing special. This is a routine district doctor’s work in a city which is shelled on a daily basis.

The area where my doctor's district is located is one of the few without shelling. I go to work with the sounds of cannon fire. The Government of Ukraine said that they won't pay our salaries. This means 150€ per month and less for me.

Maybe, I should explain you something regarding the features of ukranian medical care.

Our government started the reform of medical care. Most therapists and pediatricians were retrained to family physicians. But most of us are trying to work in their specialty – and our bosses are trying to help us in this (if they are smart bosses), because it is very difficult to change the speciality after 23 years of work.

District pediatrician should observe at least 800 children. Family doctors – 1,400 adults and children. We had enough doctors before but some doctors left the city because of the war, so I am working on three districts - for three doctors. I should observe, do routine exams (monthly children under one year and annually up to 18 years), vaccinate, diagnose and treat 2,400 children (in fact they are a little less - about 2,000). And I have to go to the call and patronage (four times in first month of life, twice – doctor and twice - nurse) to their home.

And of course I should write a lot of records and reports - at least 5 per examination of the patient and 5 monthly.

* - names of villages, towns and urban areas, which are shelled on a daily basis.