ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Soviet urban health services. It deals with the stratification of Soviet society and the parallel stratification in the provision of medical services. A review of Soviet materials revealed an extremely inefficient system, riddled by bureaucracy, poor quality, and severe problems in production, shortages, distribution, retailing, and informing physicians about new items. The general impression that emerges from outside observers, as well as from the Soviet sources themselves, is the frequent lack of sensitivity toward patient feelings and emotions displayed by Soviet physicians. A balanced view of the Soviet health system thus partakes of both universalistic aspects of contemporary medicine and peculiar features of Soviet society, history, culture, politics, traditions, economic resources, and institutions. Estimates of Gross National Product and percentages allocated to health have been made both in rubles and in dollars by Edwards, Hughes, and Noren.
