Strengthening and maintaining the health of citizens is a priority area in the state policy in the field of healthcare of the Russian Federation. One of the main vectors for solving this problem is improving medical care for the population living in rural areas. Objective: to identify its main problems based on the assessment of the organization and legal regulation of the provision of medical care to rural residents. Materials and methods. A content analysis of regulatory legal acts and scientific publications on the provision of medical care to residents of rural areas was conducted. Results. The organization of medical care for rural residents is a complex multi-level system based on the principles of stages. This ensures that the needs of the rural population in all types of medical care are met. In the presence of legal regulation in the form of national projects and guarantees of free medical care, material, financial and personnel problems negatively affect the availability and quality of medical care for rural residents. Among the main obstacles to the effective functioning of the rural health care system are uneven population distribution, territorial disunity, transport problems, limited opportunities for home medical care, as well as insufficient infrastructure development. Conclusion. To solve urgent problems in the provision of medical care to residents, it is necessary to develop and implement integrated programs that take into account regional characteristics, socio-economic conditions and resource provision of medical organizations, as well as ensuring increased investment support and modernization of rural medical organizations.
Glushchenko et al. (Fri,) studied this question.