Structure of Medical Care Services in the U.S.S.R.

The health services of the U.S.S.R. are organized and administered on a master plan based on central and monolithic planning according to Marxist socioeconomic principles. The health services have provided good available and accessible medical care to all its peoples. This has been a great and remarkable achievement. Primary medical services in the U.S.S.R. are provided by a series of specialists—uchastok (neighborhood) pediatricians, therapists (internists), occupational physicians, and dentists. Each has an allocated geographic locality and there is no free choice of physician. The uchastok physicians work from polyclinics with specialists. They also carry out daily home visits. There are no hospital facilities. The nature of the work and the work load is similar to that of primary physicians in other systems. In rural areas because of dispersal of populations, primary medical care is carried out by medical assistants (feldshers) who work under the supervision of physicians.