DESCRIPTION AND CRITICISM OF THE USSR AMBULANCE SERVICE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400581-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 25, 2011
• Sequence Number: 581
• Publication Date: August 2, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/25: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600400581-2
CLASSIFICATION S-E-C-R-E-T SECRET
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
SUBJECT Scientific - Medicine, ambulance service
HOW
PUBLISHED Semiweekly newspaper
WHERE
PUBLISHED Moscow
DATE
PUBLISHED 31 May 1951
LANGUAGE
THIS DOCUNENT CONTAINS,IHFORNATION NAFFECTING TAR NATIONAL DIFENSI
OF TNR UNITED STATES ?ITHIN THE RARING OF ISPIONAGI ACT No
U. S, C.. SI AND SE. AS ANEROID. ITS TRANSMISSION OR THE RSYSLATION
HIII TKO C ST TLATI. I REPRODUCTION OF THIS FORM o1t1PRO INIITED, IS PRO
A. Puchkov, Doctor of Medical Sciences,
Chief, Moscow City Ambulance Service Station
ti.
In the years since World War II, a truly gigantic reorganization of health
services has been launched in the USSR= In connection with this reorganization,
what has been done to improve the ombulance`service? Unfortunately, the health
departments have neglected this service in a number of cities, including Kazan',
U1'yanovsk, Yerevan, Arkhangelsk, Barnaul, Cheboksary, and a number of others.
Ambulance service stations are remembered only when there is a complaint.
According to decree No 870 and corresponding regulations, stations of the
third and fourth categories are connected with hospitals and form subdivisions
of these hospitals. Stations of the first and second categories, on the other
hand, are independent institutions which work directly under the city health de-
partments. Such stations are headed by a chief physician.
Unfortunately, some directors of health departments do not understand that
the population evaluates the total health service of a city or rayon on the
basis of the work done by the ambulance service. How else can one explain at-
tempts by the Ufa and Novosibirsk health departments to abolish first and second
class stations and to merge them with hospitals? The aim in these instances was
to transfer the stations from well-suited housing to less suitable buildings.
Special interference on the part of the Ministry of Public Health USSR was re-
quired to stop these efforts.
Some health departments do not make a sufficient effort to attach physicians
to the stations on a permanent basis.. At Chelyabinsk, Chapayevsk, Shumerlya,
etc., the stations are still headed by physicians' assistants. Notwithstanding
repeated directives from the Ministry of Public Health USSR, some health depart-
ments (Leningrad, Kazan', Serpukhovo) have not freed the ambulance service from
the duty of transporting people suffering from infectious diseases.
- 1 - SECRET
DESCRIPTION AND CRITICISM OF THE USSR AMBULANCE SERVICE
CLASSIFICATION S-E-C-R-E-T
NSRB
FBI
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1951
DATE DIST. y Aug 1951
NO, OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
], I I
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Many health dep!irtment.K do not take sufficient care to improve the qualifi-
cationa of ambulatr e scrvi:e phyei.i,irs While at. Moscow, Leningrad, and. Kiev
there is improvement in that respect (ambulance service physicians work for sev-
eral months at a licsp,_tal), nothing is tflng done at Orel, Izhevsk, Smolensk,
and. other cities t increase the clinical experience of ambulance station physi-
cians Nobody is c?_neerned with providing the necessary supplies to ambulance
service stations the Main Administration of Supply of the Ministry of Public
Health USSR does not. receive from the health departments any requests whatever
for special euppLes for ambulance stations
The importance ^I t.i~r- ambulance service physician and the fact that he re-
quires many-side i k.. igc ,,n r -ird;y be un_xereetimated. In the USSR, an ambu-
lance physician :_ surric d t" t;tve ::mplet.c medical aid on the spot, and not
.,. ..l,.r- they can obtain
n..Yely t.ransp r , ,: iris and to+u ru .here
that aid. in h, r r , 'he USSF e.C).1~.rr, s , +_('- differs in principle
from that cr, England for inst r an ambulance physician is
not reg.tir?a. t, hr,v,? mare than c-ne ye"r practtcai cxperienc.e. In the US,
ambulate physician nave been eliminated altogether, because it. their absence
(i e Wit,h^ut aid. on the =pctl the patient reaches the hospital sooner. In
St-rckhoim, smbulanc.e.=_ervtce is supplied by fire engines which alternately
speed to Ei fire ant, on returning from the fire transport sick or injured per-
sona Only in the USSR are vorkir.g people entitled to free and immediate medi-
cal service of h_:gh quality
In vie- It the itpcrtan_t function of the ambulance service, what can be
done to cupr^..ve this service" First, the district service which renders medi-
cal aid at home be orgarir d better. Often ambulance service physicians
answer ordinary calls tih:,ch can be handled by district hospital. physicians of
the united organizations- Thin prevents ambulance physicians from handling more
urgent calls on which a minute a delay may cost the.patient''s life. People
take recourse to the ambulance service, because the medical service which supplies
treatment at. home is sadly organized in some cities' the polyclinics cannot be
reached by phone over the stngie busy line which is available, and calls are not
accepted at al.l htntrs !for instance, at Vorcne2h no calls are accepted later than
aeon) This harmful pr ac.r tce must hea stopped
Another urgent task is to supply adequate means of transportation to the
ambulance service The health service authorities receive a sufficient number
of motor cars. but these cars are not being used for the purpose for which they
are intended The obiaet health departments assign care to sanitariums, hospitals,
and other medical institutions, while the ambulance service is neglected. Thus,
at Kazan the Oblast Sanitation Epidemiological Station received two ambulance-
type /iterall.y, "sanitary"7 automobiles which are being used for inspection
tours and management needs. At the same time, the ambulance service station is
forced to transport patients having infectious diseases with its inadequate
means. At Astrakhan- one may see many ambulance-type automobiles which bear the
inscription "ambulance," although they have no connection whatever with the ambu-
lance service and are not even used to transport patients.
The USSR health service has achieved the lowest death rate in the world in
acute abdominal cases %"ostryy zhivct") This achievement, which would be im-
possible under a capitalistic regime, is a result of the advantages inherent in
the USSR. socialistic health service.. it is due to the high cultural level and
experience of USSR surgeons, as well as to the existence of a well-organized
ambulance service In cities which have an adequate number of ambulances,
deaths from this cause have been practically eliminated This does not apply
to acute abdominal cases only: in Moscow, where the ambulance service is
rapid, deaths from traumatic shock have been sharply reduced.
I
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An ambulance physician needs special training and experience, because he
sees patients under conditions chick differ considerably from those encountered
at dispensaries and polyclinics The early symptoms differ from those obseived
later Thus, all textbooks assert that With a perforated ulcer of the stomach,
the abdomen is as hard as a board However, ambulance physicians frequently
see paiients with a perforated ulcer who h^?e a soft abdomen.. The abdomen hard-
ens later, in the reception room of the hospital
An ambulance physician must be a specialist in many fields and above all a
rapid diagnostician. Although :-e la not often called upon to perform. surgical
operations, he must he a go