Publishing House SB RAS:

Publishing House SB RAS:

Address of the Publishing House SB RAS:
Morskoy pr. 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia



Advanced Search

Humanitarian sciences in Siberia

2018 year, number

DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE NOVOSIBIRSK REGION DURING PREWAR PERIOD (1938-1940)

M.A. Semenov
Institute of History SB RAS, 8, Nikolaeva str., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation
Keywords: здравоохранение, медицина, Новосибирская область, предвоенные годы, health care, medicine, Novosibirsk region, prewar years

Abstract

The article is devoted to a poorly studied problem of the healthcare system development in Novosibirsk Region at the turn of the 1930s-40s. During the period under study the Novosibirsk Region concentrated on its territory almost a half of the West Siberian population, significant production and agricultural resources. The paper is written on the archival sources, including those that were for the first time introduced into scientific circulation. The article shows the steady expansion of the medical network during this period, outstripping rates of development of rural medical institutions, anti-epidemic institutions, increasing the number of both doctors and nurses. These processes led to decreasing quality of work. At the same time, Novosibirsk health care experienced serious difficulties with material support: the lack of dishes, furniture and even food, low financing of the medical staff. The paper indicates a huge scale of the preventive work carried out in medical inpatient and outpatient clinics. This allowed the healthcare system to become part of the daily lives of citizens at that time. The author reveals some qualitative characteristics of this work; indicates that in the late 1930s the medical care was widespread in rural areas; presents the dynamics of acute infection incidences during the period under study; notes that there was a steady decline in spreading infections in pre-war years; concludes that this period became a qualitatively new stage in developing healthcare in Novosibirsk. The healthcare system improvement made it possible to bring the population health protection to a higher level, but its further development was prevented by the Great Patriotic war.