Russian medical students slam ‘forced labour’

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Fourth-year medical student Alexandra says she wants to become an infections specialist, but when her university said students must do their required training in a coronavirus ward, she balked.

“This is not volunteering by choice.

“Coronavirus is dangerous and they should give people a choice,” Alexandra, who studies at Moscow’s top Sechenov medical university, said.

Daunted by the prospects of contracting the virus and infecting family members, or face expulsion, aspiring medics have protested against the decision to send students in their fourth, fifth and sixth year — who can be as young as 21 — to complete their medical training in coronavirus clinics.

The ministry of health announced on April 27 that the measure would go into effect on May 1, and only students with “medical contraindications” could refuse.

Students in all medical fields, including dentistry and paediatrics, are affected, according to the decree.

“Those who refuse to go will not get their qualification and can face expulsion,” sixthyear student Svetlana said.

Confronted with a relentless daily increase of confirmed cases, which on Sunday pushed its total number over 200,000, Russia is taking measures to staff its hospitals as it expands the number of beds by 100,000 across the country.

But many students say they do not want to be put in such conditions without allocated housing and assurances that full protection will be issued.

Svetlana, Alexandra and other students spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

“We’re not doctors yet, our task is to get an education,” Alexandra said.

“There are fears that we will be of no use and spread the infection instead.”

She said students were offered training in regular hospitals, or coronavirus hospitals, including “red zones” for Covid-19 patients.

“There is no adequate protection, and it’s difficult to believe that if the doctors don’t have enough, they would find it for us,” she said.

In an anonymous appeal circulated on social networking sites, students at the Pirogov medical university in Moscow have asked rector Sergei Lukyanov to make the coronavirus mobilisation voluntary.

The Pirogov university and Moscow’s department of health did not respond to a request for comment.

At the Sechenov university, vice-rector Tatyana Litvinova said that working with coronavirus patients would not be obligatory and the school would not punish anyone who declined.

“If a student does not want to do it, they can do their practice in a different establishment, nobody is going to force them,” she said, contradicting the text of the health ministry decree.

She further promised that students in Moscow would be paid a salary of 100,000 roubles ( about R25,000) and given personal protection.

Ivan Konovalov, spokesperson for the Alliance of Doctors, a union associated with opposition politician Alexei Navalny, said that the authorities had turned to students because of medical staff shortages.

“Health care reforms of the past years have led to the departure of many doctors” from the profession, he said.

This problem was even flagged by some government institutions such as the Audit Chamber, which stated that “optimisation” of the sector — a euphemism for cuts — has left Russian health care weakened during the epidemic.

But Russia needs more doctors, not fewer.

Staff are required at various temporary facilities set up in the past weeks for light coronavirus cases, as the number of people testing positive has grown by more than 10,000 daily for more than a week.

More than 100 doctors have died treating the infection, according to a list of names kept by people in the profession.

Konovalov said that despite these difficulties, reaching out to students was not the solution.

“Even those in their last year don’t have experience to work in these conditions,” he said.

Students have also launched an online petition, demanding that the decree is revoked.

An Instagram campaign against “forced labour” is continuing.

Not all Russians are sympathetic, however.

“Why did you choose this profession? To save lives!” one user of the VK network named Marina Goncharova said in a group dedicated to the subject.

“If war breaks out, are you also going to hide behind your mother’s skirts? ”—