Photo: Nursing staff. Photo: Anton Vergun/TASS
“Yesterday I took a patient for an ultrasound, and she asks me:“ Is it true that you are starving here? And you don't know who?» “I,” I say.
Natasha Trukhina is thin, short. When asked why she was the first among the junior nurses of the Kolomna perinatal center to start a hunger strike, she quietly answers: “Probably, I have nothing to lose.”
Natasha is on a hunger strike for the third day. I prepared for a month, gradually reducing the diet and consulting with a therapist. Now he only takes water. We go to the pharmacy for Almagel prescribed to her — Natasha is afraid to plant her stomach. Yesterday she had her head spinning for the first time. But the doctor's recommendation to avoid sudden movements and do everything slowly cannot be fulfilled — there are many patients, few staff, you need to work quickly.
Natasha laughs, saying that if she gets sick, they will notice that since the beginning of the hunger strike, two employees of the perinatal center have been following her relentlessly, who methodically record her every action. After complaints from staff about working conditions in the institution, a “photo of the working day” is taken. True, according to Trukhina, only eleven sisters who signed a notification of a hunger strike of protest are being checked. In total, 22 junior nurses remained in the six-story center and there is no longer a single nurse. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Health, 160 is required.
< p> Natasha is starving for the third day. Yesterday she had her head spinning for the first time. Photo: Tatyana Britskaya/Novaya Gazeta
True, in response to an appeal from Kolomna doctors, the head of the department for organizing medical care for mothers and children of the Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region wrote that staff standards were advisory. But this thesis contradicts the Procedure for the provision of medical care in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, which tie the number of positions of junior nurses in a one-to-one ratio to the number of midwives.
From the statement about the start of the protest hunger strike
“Due to the huge workload, it happens that for the entire 12-hour shift, the junior nurse has only 7-10 minutes to have a quick bite to eat once.
The women and children at the center suffer from a lack of staff. After 20.00, junior nurses of the admission department are forced to serve several departments and eight posts at the same time: this is one post of the «receiver» itself, one gynecology post after 16.00, two posts in the department of pathology of pregnant women, two posts in the postpartum, two gynecology posts, and even with a large number of childbirth go to help in the maternity ward.
Trukhina works on the third floor of the center, in three departments. On peak days, she has to take care of 60 women at the same time. After the sisters' complaints reached the Ministry of Health and the prosecutor's office, the flow dropped sharply — now there are half as many women. Instead of the usual 20-24 people a day, no more than 14 are admitted.
Sisters believe that women in labor are redirected to other maternity hospitals so that the words of activists about the inhuman workload are not confirmed.
The perinatal center where the nurses rebelled is brand new. Photo: Tatyana Britskaya/Novaya Gazeta
Five out of the eleven who signed the appeal decided to starve, the rest are not healthy. They enter the hunger strike in stages: every five days a new person must join.
“I can’t change jobs every time when the management decides to get into my pocket,” Natalya explains her persistence.
< p>She went through four stages of layoffs and is sure that unreasonable optimization directly affects the provision of medical care — the patient.
The Perinatal Center is completely new, it has been operating for the fourth year. Trukhina tells how well the clinic is conceived, what excellent doctors work there and in what difficult cases they can help. “You go into the department, where tiny, 400 grams each, children are lying. And you see how every day they get stronger, grow, it’s a miracle when we can help a baby who is being formed outside the mother’s body!”
Natasha says “we”, she is sure: the main thing is not to protest harmed the patients.
When nurses were laid off across the country seven years ago, she learned to be a nurse at her own expense. Now sanitary duties are slowly shifted to junior nurses. There is no extra charge for this, she said. Natalia's last salary is 32 thousand. Natasha has four children.
“It's funny, but the hunger strike was the first decision I made without consulting my family. Previously, she did nothing without obtaining the consent of her husband and eldest daughter. Even on the right, therefore, did not give up for a long time. And now I decided myself.”