"Up to 80-90% of primary care medical equipment are already Russian manufacturers"
Incorrect determination of the need for medicines at the regional levels and errors in technical specifications when announcing purchases are the main causes of disruptions in the regions, Alla Samoilova, head of Roszdravnadzor, told Izvestia in an interview. This is how she commented on the newspaper's materials about the shortage of drugs, in particular, for renal patients. However, according to her, the situation is not critical: the production of drugs in Russia has been established, and interruptions occur on a spot — in certain regions. But there is a lack of public control over the situation and the distribution of medicines: patient organizations do not always transmit such information to Roszdravnadzor. In an interview with the editorial board, Alla Samoilova also focused on how medical equipment is being imported, by whom it is serviced in regions where there are no special organizations for this, and what has changed in the practice of public procurement.
"One of the common violations is incorrect formation of technical specifications"
— Have there been any violations in the procurement of medical products this year? And if so, in which regions and which ones?
— If we summarize the overall violations that occur during procurement, the main one among them is not always the correct definition of the need for medical devices.: what exactly needs to be purchased for a specific medical organization. In addition, one of the most common violations is not always the correct formulation of the terms of reference.
Examination of the patient on an echocardiography machine (ECHOCG) in the hospital's emergency department
— Can you name the "two-man" regions?
"Why?" The regions are getting better, we are working with them, we are constantly training them. They try, they draw the necessary conclusions. Therefore, we will not call the "twos" today. I hope that through our joint efforts, this category will disappear as a species altogether in the future. Only the "excellent students" and the solid "good guys" will remain.
— How can such violations be prevented?
— We have already taken the path of typification — the development of standard technical specifications so that for each type of medical organization exactly the medical equipment that is needed is purchased. Together with the country's leading specialists, the main freelance specialists of the Ministry of Health, the "gold standard" is being formed — a standard technical task. This is a set of parameters of a medical device that are necessary to help patients, depending on the level of medical organization. Excessive requirements are excluded from the technical specifications, which do not affect the result, but seriously affect the cost of the product. And the role of Roszdravnadzor here is to prevent restrictions on competition and to check the compliance of the manufacturer's operational documentation.
The second tool also helps to save money — it is the consolidation of demand through joint purchases: applications for the same type of equipment from many medical institutions, including from different regions, are combined. As a result, instead of hundreds of small orders, one large order is placed.
— What are the savings from this approach?
— The volume of such large orders is becoming interesting for all key market players. In the fight for this contract, they offer the best, and often record low prices. On average, as a result of such joint trades, it is possible to reduce the starting cost by more than 35%. Thus, in 2025, based on the results of 19 joint purchases, savings amounted to more than 5.5 billion rubles. And with these funds, it is possible to purchase even more equipment for a larger number of medical institutions, thereby increasing the availability of medical care for citizens. This is probably the most important thing.
— Where do the saved funds go?
— For example, at the expense of the funds saved from purchases under the federal project "Fight against oncological diseases", 238 units of high-tech equipment were additionally purchased for the same project: this is an SPECT/CT machine (combining single-photon emission computed tomography and X-ray computed tomography. — Izvestia), PET/CT (combine positron emission tomography and computed tomography. — Izvestia), complexes and boxes for radiochemical research, chromatographs and much more.
And right now, a large purchase of equipment and software for pathology departments is being formed. And this purchase will be made at the expense of the saved funds.
The patient during the examination in the radiography room
"Domestic equipment for X-ray diagnostics is successfully exported abroad"
— What is the current percentage of Russian medical products on the market?
— I think that we have achieved serious success in import substitution, we have made a very big step forward, especially when it comes to consumables and small medical devices. These are, for example, syringes, transfusion systems, surgical threads, gloves. Import substitution is evident here, with Russian manufacturers demonstrating complete dominance. If we talk today about equipping our primary care medical organizations (outpatient medical organizations, for example, FAPs and polyclinics. — Izvestia) as part of the modernization, we can say that up to 80-90% of all medical equipment there are already Russian manufacturers.
In addition, we have a large volume of our own X-ray, anesthesiological, intensive care equipment, mammographs, ultrasound equipment. If you look at government procurement, the share of Russian ultrasound machines is 61% of the total volume of such equipment. And the share of domestic ventilators purchased by the state healthcare system in 2025 exceeds 80%. The technique for X-ray diagnostics is already Russian in eight out of ten cases. In addition, it is successfully exported abroad.
We are seeing steady growth in the field of rehabilitation, orthopedic products and endoprostheses. Today, up to half of these products are manufactured in Russia.
An employee of the company at the assembly line of artificial lung ventilation (ventilator) devices at the Ural Instrument-making Plant
— What is difficult to import so far?
— We have something to strive for. These are heavy medical equipment — angiographs, MRI machines. Although there are already developments of CT scanners, there are developments of radiation devices for diagnosis and treatment in oncological practice. We are not standing still, and it is very important to us that we produce the necessary equipment for the country in full.
— At the conference, you said that medical device service organizations are unevenly distributed in the country. Is this a problem?
— The problem really existed, because it was necessary to train our specialists, who had to close the whole country and maintain heavy equipment. And our Institute of Medical Technology quickly got involved in this work and, in fact, has already replaced everything where it was needed.
An employee sets up an MRI machine at the Zaporizhia Regional Cancer Center in Melitopol
— How do regions where there are few such organizations work? There are also those where they are not enough.
— Where there are none at all, these are, as a rule, small subjects of the federation — Chukotka, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Jewish Autonomous Region. But there are large entities nearby. As a result, the Khabarovsk Territory serves the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Arkhangelsk Region serves the Nenets Autonomous District, the Magadan Region serves Chukotka, and the Khabarovsk Territory serves Kamchatka.
There is a relatively small amount of medical equipment in these regions, and it is impractical to keep engineers there, especially for heavy machinery — they can come there. As a rule, within medical organizations in these subjects, medical equipment is serviced by service engineers who are on the staff of the medical organization.
Doctors during surgery at the surgical and angiographic complex of the Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery in Chelyabinsk
"We have not received any complaints from either patients or patient organizations"
— Roszdravnadzor and the Prosecutor General's Office recently announced an inspection based on the Izvestia article about the shortage of drugs for patients with kidney diseases. We wrote about a similar problem in the spring of this year. Why do such problems occur regularly, especially towards the end of the year?
— I can say that for many categories of patients, these are both renal and diabetic, today, in terms of production, as a rule, everything is enough. Drugs are supplied and put into civilian circulation stably and in full and should be available everywhere, including in the pharmacy network.
But when we talk about complaints, the issues of procurement procedures that occur within each region arise again. If we had problems with the production and availability of these drugs, the problem would be nationwide. But we see 2-5 regions. That is, the problem is spot-on.
In addition, I would like to draw attention to the importance of public control here: in none of the regions mentioned in the publications have we received complaints from either patients or patient organizations. And we have forms on our website, hotlines, and a phone number for inquiries. And when we receive complaints from patients about insufficient medication, we take control of the situation, monitor and interact with regional health authorities to promptly respond to possible violations. And patient organizations are well aware of this.
Nevertheless, Roszdravnadzor will continue to monitor the situation and cooperate with regional health authorities to promptly respond to possible violations in the provision of medicines to patients.
Packaging of tablets on a blister machine at a pharmaceutical company
— Moratoriums on inspections do not prevent Roszdravnadzor from identifying problem areas?
— There are moratoriums on inspections, but today we have reformatted our work. And now we are entering into pinpoint violations. Today, risk indicators have been developed — these are some flags that indicate where problems may be. And if we see this burning flag, then we go and actually find violations. That is, the control has not decreased in any way, it has transformed and become even more effective.
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