Public Health in the USSR, 1984

A Soviet ambulance races through the streets of Moscow, c. 1984

From Socialism: Theory and Practice Magazine, January 1984

Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection.

This right is ensured by free, qualified medical care provided by state health institutions; by extension of the network of therapeutic and health-building institutions; by the development and improvement of safety and hygiene in industry; by carrying out broad prophylactic measures; by measures to improve the environment; by special care for the health of the rising generation, including prohibition of child labour. excluding the work done by children as part of the school curriculum; and by developing research to prevent and reduce the incidence of disease and ensure citizens a long and active life. -- Article 42, the Constitution of the USSR

Altogether there are now over 2.7 million doctors in the world, including more than a million in the USSR, or more than one-third of the world total. The number of doctors has grown 24-fold during the 60-odd years of Soviet power. According to the World Health Organization, adequate medical service can be provided only if there are 28 doctors per ten thousand people.

The entire population of the USSR enjoys free, and accessible to all medical treatment, given by well-qualified personnel. There are over 23 thousand hospitals with a total of 3.4 million beds in the Soviet Union.

Preventive medicine is the general trend in the development of public health in the USSR. Some 1 10 million people are given annual check-ups for the prevention and early identification of illness. The country boasts over 5 thousand sanatoria, health treatment centres which workers attend after work, rest homes with treatment facilities, as well as 2.5 thousand holiday homes. boarding houses and recreation centres. They provide treatment and recreation for some 60 million people annually.

Particular attention is paid in the USSR to child health protection. A system of child health centres has been set up and is being constantly improved. In 1981, the country had 14,400 child clinics and outpatient centres, and some 1,200 child sanatoria.

The child is taken care of even before its birth–all expectant mothers come under the doctor’s care in this country. A baby spends its first 7-10 days in a maternity home. Infants are given compulsory monthly check-ups until they are one year old, then 3-4 times a year until they reach the age of two, and afterwards at least once or twice a year.

The years of Soviet power have seen a dramatic drop in the incidence of infectious diseases among children. Over the last forty years, the number of diphtheria cases has fallen 656 times, acute poliomyelitis–6, whooping cough–18, and measles three times.

Soviet preventive medicine also aims at improving and providing adequate labour conditions, at preventing occupational diseases and accidents Spending on these purposes more than doubled in the 1970s alone. Occupational accidents declined by over 35 per cent over the same period.

The USSR ranks among the countries with the lowest incidence of occupational accidents.

The public health system, set up and developed in the years of Soviet power, has substantially improved citizens’ health. The USSR, formerly a backward country with a high prevalence of sickness and a high mortality rate, has become a state with high health standards during the life of one generation. The mortality rate in the USSR has declined by 3 times, compared with what it was in the pre-revolutionary period (the relevant figures for Britain, Italy and the USA are 1.2. 2. and 1.5 times respectively). The average life-span has more than doubled during the years of Soviet government, the average age now being 70 for both sexes -- 74 for females and 64 for males.