CONCLUSIONS
The Soviet healthcare system was centralized, integrated, hierarchically organized and
wholly financed from general government revenues. Healthcare services were (in
principle, at least) provided free to all citizens, and all health personnel were state
employees. The system placed enormous emphasis on the control of epidemics and
infectious diseases. This contributed to the development of a large and effective public
health (san-epid) network, but the determination to isolate infected persons also led to
overprovision of hospital beds, which contributed over time to an imbalance in the
overall structure of healthcare provision. On the whole, the Soviet system tended to
neglect primary care, apart from public health, and to place too much emphasis on
specialist and hospital care.
The structure of the Soviet system, which specified the length of treatment for every
disease, often caused people suffering from relatively minor ailments such as influenza
to be hospitalized. The result was a serious overcrowding problem in hospitals despite
the large number of beds available. Patients also preferred hospital treatment because
hospitals were better equipped than clinics. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union was first in
the world in the ratio of hospital beds to population.