In Chelyabinsk, diabetics cannot receive medicines for which money is allocated annually from the budget.
Residents of Chelyabinsk said that for weeks they could not get the free insulin and the drugs they are entitled to to lower blood glucose levels.
In the Chelyabinsk region there is a "War on diabetes" program, under which funds are allocated from the budget for the purchase of medicines every year. However, in recent weeks people have been having problems with the results.
One of the tenants, Alexandra, said that with type 2 diabetes she was prescribed metformin vildagliptin. This year she received them only twice without problems, and in the other months they faced the lack of the medicine.
"I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes two years ago and they immediately told me that I could get two medications for free. These are Metformin Vildagliptin. And now it got to the point where I had to buy the medicine at the pharmacy with my own money. This is the first time in two years. I went to Clinic No. 5 for two weeks, where I receive Alexandra medication, and I always left with nothing."
Another patient, Pavel, who has type 1 diabetes, said he is already used to refusals and buys insulin himself: "I don't even go there anymore, I buy it myself. Things have gotten really bad in the last two months."
According to Alexandra, older people leave the registry office literally five seconds after they refuse.
The clinic said that requests for drugs have been sent to the Ministry of Health, and the institution can only wait. In response, the Regional Ministry of Health stated that vildagliptin was purchased these days and representatives of the medical organization will contact all patients. Alexandra was surprised by this, and noted that in the past, when there were delays at the department level, no one called them, but always asked them to find out on their own.
The budget of the Chelyabinsk region for 2026 provides 109 million rubles for the "Fighting Diabetes" program.