Monday, December 14, 2020

Siberians give weary doctors a lift

 As the pandemic resurged across Russia this fall, people who were self-isolating at home had to wait days before a visiting doctor would arrive to check on them. Doctors were making 20-25 house calls per day, and were almost falling off their feet. In Irkutsk, all that changed in October, when a group of volunteers began driving doctors to home visits. 


Vadim Kostenko, 37, realized doctors could visit 70% more patients when they had a driver, instead of going on foot. He suggest people volunteer as drivers. In two weeks there were 22 cars and over 100 volunteers. By December, the program (Let's Help Doctors Together) there were 3,000 volunteers in ten Russian regions. In Irkutsk alone, more than 500 volunteers have driven doctors to 10,000 house calls since October. 


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