Professional Ethics and Informal Payments in Contemporary Russian Medicine (Case of the Moscow Ambulance)

The work is devoted to the study of professional ethics and informal payments in modern Russian medicine (case of the Moscow ambulance). A number of studies conducted in Russia confirm the prevalence of informal payments in medicine and public health. According to the legislative documents on medical ethics, the profession of a doctor isn’t a business, a doctor and a medical worker wouldn’t derive commercial benefits for himself, the priority for him is the provision of necessary and high-quality care. In connection with these provisions, the problem of the correlation of medical ethical regulations with the medical practice of informal payments becomes open, as well as the commission of informal payments by patients with state-guaranteed free medical care. The purpose of this work is to reveal the perception of informal payments and the idea of medical ethics in doctors and paramedics of emergency medical care. The object of the study are doctors and paramedic of the emergency medical service in Moscow, as well as patients who called for emergency medical care at least once in the past year. Based on 15 in-depth interviews collected by the author on their own, an analysis was made of the perception of informal payments in medicine by doctors and paramedics, as well as by patients. The classification of motives for the commission and acceptance of informal payments, the subject and forms of informal payments in the emergency medical service, as well as the views of medical emergency medical personnel on proper behavior during a call with patients and their relatives are presented.