European and American clinics began to refuse Russians in planned treatment without explanation. According to Russians, there has recently been an unwritten ban on the treatment of Russians in Western medical institutions.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing war and sanctions imposed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has become more difficult for patients from Russia to receive treatment in European clinics, Russian Medvestnik writes, citing data from the TopMedClinic service, which unites medical travel agencies.
According to the CEO of TopMedClinic Victoria Sandaluk, a number of German state and university clinics have actually stopped working with Russian patients:
They accept applications, but it is impossible to get answers. It can be seen that an unspoken rule has appeared not to deal with the Russians or leave them for later. She also noted that European clinics demonstrate that they no longer look at the Russian market – “for example, they removed Russian-speaking operators.
The fact that German clinics do not accept patients from Russia was announced in the Russian representative office of the Madanes health insurance provider, as well as in the German Clinics service.
Maxim Rykov, founder of German Clinics, said:
All German state clinics, including Charite, no longer issue medical invitations to Russians. It is a fact. The clinics explain to us that they don’t even have the necessary forms in the system anymore. That is, earlier they had the form of a medical invitation by the country “Russia”, but now it has been removed from the base.”
According to Rykov, a patient from Russia will be able to receive treatment in a state clinic in Germany only when he finds a medical agency in the same city (for example, Berlin) that will handle it. The cost of such a service in Munich, for example, costs about 750 euros.
In general, according to the TopMedClinic service, the number of Russians who went abroad for treatment in 2022 decreased by at least 30-40%. Experts attribute the drop not only to refusals from clinics, but also to a sharp increase in the cost of treatment, primarily due to the complication of logistics – flights, visa fees and ensuring the passage of money transfers under sanctions.
Victoria Sandaluk from TopMedClinic described the situation as follows:
If earlier the work was flowing – we contacted the clinics and then immediately dealt with the registration of the patient, now we either get an answer that the clinic cannot accept a person because of a passport, or the patient himself refuses, having learned the cost of treatment.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.