“They Will Get Paid Not 1500 Rubles but 500”

How the authorities are deceiving doctors.

Since August, the procedure for calculating surcharges to doctors in connection with the coronavirus has changed. Previously, if a doctor was busy with covid patients at least a third of his time, then he received the premium in full. Now only covid hours are paid. Nasha Niva asked the doctors if their salaries had been cut.

"Now one doctor from the department travels in covid teams"

A local therapist at one of the Minsk polyclinics says that, last month, she received a supplement of 220 rubles for five days.

“Under the old rules, I would have received the same amount, because this is less than a third of the working time (45 hours out of 169) and the additional payment would have been hourly,” she explains.

A full covid surcharge for a therapist in a polyclinic is 1000 rubles. According to the specialist, for many, it will be impossible to get it in this amount since not only the rules for calculating additional payments have changed but also the approaches to the organization of work.

“Previously, doctors in covid teams alternated. Now the brigades have been cut, one doctor from the department goes to such calls. For example, during a month, he takes all covid calls, and another person takes the next month. Therefore, the rest will have fewer covid hours.

At the same time, the situation with the coronavirus is not improving. Recently, an order was issued to provide additional beds for such patients. Planned hospitalization, for example, was suspended by the hospital of WWII veterans, some departments of the 4th hospital,” the interlocutor shares.

"Previously, in order to receive the full surcharge, one had to have contact with the sick during eight shifts"

The situation in hospitals is described by the Vitebsk surgeon:

"If earlier, in order to receive the full supplement (1,500 rubles before taxes), you had to have contact with infectious patients during eight work shifts, now 500 rubles are paid for this."

It should be taken into account that many doctors work more than a full-time rate, and, therefore, the gap in amounts is larger. For one and a half rates, the surcharge for a third of covid shifts will not be 2,000 rubles but 660.

The situation with the epidemic in the city is tense.

“There are a lot of patients, and additional covid beds are being organized again,” the doctor notes.

"If the department is completely covid, nothing has changed"

The anesthesiologist at the Minsk hospital says that the new rules did not affect everyone.

“If the department is completely covid, then nothing has changed, doctors receive the same amount as before. And if it, like ours, has both "clean" and "dirty" beds - then we will receive an additional payment only for the time that was occupied by covid patients, the rest will be paid as usual."

The surcharge for doctors in intensive care units per rate (170 hours) is 3,000 rubles.

"I have only recently come out of the vacation, so I haven’t seen the payroll yet. In July, before the new rules, I had 300 working hours, of which I spent 148 in covid, received an additional payment of more than 5,000 rubles."

Now, for the same number of hours spent with patients with coronavirus, the doctor would receive half as much.

A nurse in another Minsk hospital works in the "red" zone. All her shifts are covid. Therefore, the surcharge remained, as in the previous month - 2,000 rubles.

“Believe me, no one would work without surcharges,” she says.

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According to job banks, the country today lacks almost 4.4 thousand doctors and 2.8 thousand nurses.