Rewards for doctors: health workers to receive increments by New Year?
Health workers’ salary in Tatarstan will increase by 10-15% next year and approach 80,000 rubles, trade unions hope
Health workers of the republic will likely receive rewards before New Year following teachers’ increments in December. Realnoe Vremya found out, there is some probability that a financial reward for medics who participated in the fight against coronavirus and vaccination of citizens was prepared in Tatarstan. After Vice Premier Tatiana Golikova criticised low first-dose vaccination rates, Tatarstan polyclinics switched to a more intense working mode. It is assumed that the health workers’ efforts will be awarded later this year. Without this reward given for a higher vaccination rate, public health workers’ fixed salaries will rise from 1 January, while the doctor’s average salary in the republic is already 74,200 rubles, as the Tatarstan Ministry of Health Care said.
Bonus for vaccination
Other intrigue regarding public workers’ New Year increments can be revealed this week. This time, a surprise is prepared for doctors who can receive bonuses after teachers. As Realnoe Vremya’s sources claim, it is rewards for medics who participated in the vaccination against coronavirus and in the fight against COVID-19.
Formally, the Tatarstan Cabinet of Ministers adopted the amount of rewards for vaccination as early as September by fixing the nationwide increment of 200 rubles per every vaccinated citizen of the republic. But due to bureaucratic procedures for approving the calculation method and intergovernmental transfers with federal financial structures, increments weren’t transferred to the addressees fully and now can be included to the general big reward till the end of the year.
The accurate amount of rewards for vaccination isn’t yet named, but given the high autumn vaccination rates, Tatarstan doctors might receive quite a big reward.
13 billion rubles to combat coronavirus
It should be reminded that this August the Russian government ordered to allocate 7,8 billion rubles to pay for doctors’ additional workload due to the vaccination carried out in the country. According to the Russian government’s decree, this money is earmarked from the federal budget, but the region is obliged to co-finance the expenses in the form of stimulating increments for medics participating in the vaccination of the population against COVID-19.
After most regions introduced increments for vaccinations in November, the Russian Health Care Ministry approved the method of calculation and distribution of the incentive. It spells out their division within the medical staff.
- So when vaccinating somebody with a two-dose Sputnik V vaccine, a medic who consults and refers a patient to vaccination must receive 60 rubles per patient, while the nurse who injects the first dose of the vaccine will receive 40 rubles.
- During the vaccination with the second dose, a medic is entitled to receive 40 rubles for a patient’s examination while a nurse will get 30 rubles for administering the second dose of the vaccine.
- During the vaccination with the single-dose vaccine against coronavirus, medics must receive 90 rubles for consultation and referral for vaccination, 60 rubles for pre- and post-vaccination examination and 50 rubles for the vaccination itself.
According to our newspaper’s sources, the federal payouts for vaccination have been regularly transferred since early October, but the republic will likely additionally pay New Year rewards for medics too. Tatarstan Minister of Finance Radik Gayzatullin recently said that the republic received over 13 billion rubles of non-repayable assistance to combat coronavirus.
Tatarstan Trade Union of Health Workers: “Nobody promised anything to us”
“Before Pesoshin (Editor’s note: the prime minister of the Cabinet of Ministers) signs the decree I cannot comment [the New Year payouts for doctors]. Nobody promised anything to us and owes us anything,” head of the Tatarstan republican Trade Union of Health Care Workers Gulnar Khusnutdinova told Realnoe Vremya. Some municipal health care institutions are already aware of the rewards that are going to be paid for the excessive workload but withhold official comments.
Clearly, the amount of New Year rewards for vaccination for medics in different municipalities will strongly differ because they directly depend on the activity of the vaccination campaign on every specific territory. The more citizens come for vaccination the higher the payouts. For instance, the Bugulma Central Regional Hospital told Realnoe Vremya that at the moment the vaccination rate in the district rose to 78%. But they didn’t forecast what payouts and when Bugulma medics would receive. Generally speaking, Tatarstan doctors prefer not to be reticent about this delicate topic.
To raise the minimum fixed salary to the minimum wage
Trade unions’ key efforts are now put to complete the work on raising medics’ salary.
As a result, Tatarstan trade unions are holding talks about raising basic salaries. As a result, the minimum fixed salary must increase by some 30%. In addition, all public workers’ minimum wage in 2022 must be raised to reach the living wage. Next year, the Tatarstan budget will allocate 5,5 billion rubles for this, Chairman of the Tatarstan State Council’s Committee for Budget Leonid Yakunin told Realnoe Vremya.
However, unlike teachers, health workers’ salaries this year will reach the target outlined in May decrees. According to the Russian president’s instructions, it was increased by 200% of the average in the Tatarstan economy, said head of the Tatarstan Trade Union of Health Workers Gulnar Khusnutdinova said. To compare, in teachers, this level must be 100%, the New Year increments are “catching up with” this level.
The Russian Federation of Trade Unions of Health Workers told our newspaper:
“Today doctors’ average salary in public health institutions of Tatarstan is 76,200 rubles, nurses earn 38,400 rubles, paramedical staff do 33,700 rubles (Editor’s note: the salaries don’t include payouts for treating COVID-19 administered by the Federal Social Insurance Service). The average salary of 36,000 rubles was chosen as a benchmark.
For this reason, the trade union of health workers doesn’t yet see the foundation for additional payouts from the budget to raise medics’ salaries to the level envisaged by the May decrees.
Doctors’ basic pay to grow by 5,200 rubles
The Tatarstan Ministry of Health Care specified that doctors’ basic pays will go up by 5,237 rubles from 1 January 2022, that of nurses will do by 4,617 rubles, the basic salary of workers, specialists and employees of medical organisations will by 5,237 rubles. Changes to salary of health workers in Tatarstan public health care institutions were made on 30 October this year, the press service of the Tatarstan Ministry of Health Care explained. The Russian trade union evaluates that the general salary will go 10-15% up and near 80,000 rubles.
Meanwhile, a deficit of doctors in Tatarstan remains high enough, especially in municipalities. So the website of the Nizhnekamsk Central Regional Hospital has 72 vacancies at once. First of all, 4 gynaecologists, 4 anaesthesia care providers, 3 cardiologists are needed.
6,000 doctors wanted in Tatarstan
According to hh.ru, a recruitment website, more than 6,000 positions of doctors have been vacant in Tatarstan since the beginning of the year. 70% of these vacancies suit inexperienced specialists, 15% of them require experience from one to three years.
Demand for these specialists in 2021 has more than doubled in the region compared to 2019. Moreover, average salaries have risen by 5,000 rubles, from 45,000 in 2019 to 50,000 rubles in 2021. And as we see, they don’t match those sums mentioned in the federal trade union.
Doctors for infectious diseases are offered the highest salaries, hh.ru says, 61,000 rubles on average, according to the positions in 2021. Dentists (60,900 rubles) rank second, surgeons do third (59,300 rubles). Private medical centres carefully follow changes in doctors’ salary in public health care to retain skilled specialists.
According to AVA-Kazan centre’s Director General Firaya Sabirova, nowadays the salary at their centre remains at a competitive level and outperforms the pay in the public one.
However, Sabirova didn’t name the salary diapason citing privacy. However, the director of AVA-Kazan expressed her confidence that the rise in doctors’ basic pays in public health care won’t lead to staff emigration from private health care.