Medical personnel potential of the regional healthcare system: risks and development opportunities

The current period of development of the Russian healthcare system is characterized as a crisis, which is primarily due to the personnel imbalance. The authors, on the basis of a medical and statistical study of the staffing of medical organizations in the Saratov region, revealed the presence of structural imbalances: both between the actual population of the region and the staffing of the healthcare system with medical personnel in general, and between the indicators that characterize the staffing of organizations providing primary healthcare and specialized medical care with medical personnel. In regional healthcare, with a general shortage of medical personnel in the state health system (-986 doctors), there is a particularly pronounced shortage of polyclinic doctors (-986 doctors, mostly district pediatricians and internists), with a slight surplus of doctors in inpatient medical organizations (+91 people). The personnel shortage in the primary health care system determines a decrease in the level of its availability and quality and is a key risk factor for the reputational losses of the regional health care system.