YAKUTSK, May 26. /TASS/. The Arctic medicine pilot project, where medical mobile teams provide care to residents of the Arctic zone in Yakutia, will become annual, the region's Deputy Prime Minister Olga Balabkina told TASS.
"Our people have given positive feedback on this project, as the region's Arctic zone has a big problem with transport. We will continue the project, it will become an annual project, covering Yakutia's all 13 Arctic districts. We will also include into this project hard-to-reach and remote settlements that are outside the Arctic zone," she said.
The project will continue also in the areas that suffered from floods in the past years - the Aldansky, Kobyai, Neryungrinsky, Oymyakonsky and Tomponsky districts.
The project is a combination of telemedicine and visits of doctors. It was launched in Yakutia in February, 2023. Under the project, people living in remote settlements will have access to medical care throughout the year. Noteworthy, some settlements can be reached by air only.
Accessible medicine
Yakutia's Governor Aisen Nikolayev has initiated the project. In January, the region formed the mobile teams' center.
"The center reports to the regional Ministry of Healthcare," the center's head Artem Ksenofontov said. "The pilot project is a joint work featuring the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry for the Development of the Arctic, as well as municipalities and major hospitals in the districts."
About 130 doctors from various medical organizations formed the multidisciplinary teams. "In addition to a GP and pediatrician, teams featured a neurologist, cardiologist, endocrinologist, trauma surgeon, urologist, obstetrician-gynecologist, pulmonologist. These are the specialties that are still lacking in the Arctic," he added.
Mobile teams with equipment and medicines traveled to the Arctic from Yakutsk. They had ultrasound, ECG, EEG and other equipment. One medical team of 12-13 specialists normally carried 300 kg of cargo. Additionally, the doctors have delivered about 300 kg of preferential medicines to the Arctic settlements.
Residents of hard-to-reach settlements were able to receive highly qualified medical care without leaving their settlements. "For example, in the Ust-Yansky District, a settlement may be up to 400 km away from the district center. That is, to see a doctor a patient has to cover this distance to the hospital, and then to return home. Under this project, doctors come to patients and take care of them on the spot. The main result is thorough observation, when we register a patient, and specialists from Yakutsk will continue the treatment," the center's leader said.
Indicators and plans
The project has already covered all 89 settlements in Yakutia's 13 Arctic districts, including the most sparsely populated settlements. For example, one team was working in the village of Yukagir, in the Ust-Yansky District, where 29 people live. Doctors also visited reindeer herders' remote camps and horse farms.
Bad weather and off-road conditions could not stop the doctors. Quite often, at first, they took a flight to a district center, and then drove along the winter road to the designated settlement. "If cars were unable to get there, then they used Polar Airlines' or Alrosa Airlines' helicopters. If that option was not possible either, the doctors got to the destination by Buran (4x4 off-road vehicles)," he continued.
Over the season, the teams covered more than 38,200 km by air, and 14,700 km by winter roads inside the districts. The doctors examined more than 15,000 people, where more than 4,200 were representatives of the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples. The doctors have recommended about 2,000 people to contact further doctors in Yakutsk. The Arctic zone's residents mostly complained about diseases of the circulatory system, endocrine diseases and diseases of the musculoskeletal system.
It took mobile teams about two weeks to make medical examinations in one district's settlements. In settlements, which not always have buildings for primary medical care, the teams worked at schools, halls, or kindergartens - as the local authorities had advised.
The doctors had to provide emergency care: "in the village of Honu in the Momsky District, a man was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. A surgery was performed on the spot, and a specialist from Yakutsk was called there. The patient has recovered," the center's chief said.
In the coming autumn, mobile medical teams will resume the work in the Arctic. "According to the local medical insurance fund, 59,000 people live in Yakutia, and specialists from central hospitals and our center should offer preventive examination to everyone," the region's deputy prime minister said. "This autumn, the center's teams will travel to the Arctic districts again to see how the locals feel after the winter examination and to examine those who have missed the doctors earlier. We have been recruiting for permanent employment doctors for preventive examinations and for serving calls from patients.".