The Contribution of Tomsk Province's Society of Practitioners to the Development of Health Care Quality in Tomsk and Tomsk Province

The aim of this article is to analyse the contribution of the Society of Practitioners of Tomsk Province to the development and quality of medical health care in Tomsk and Tomsk Province. The article studies the proposals and ideas suggested by the university staff during the existence of the Society, as well as the mechanisms for their implementation in the future. The article focuses on the history of health care in Siberia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, namely, on the activity of the Society of Practitioners of Tomsk Province during its existence. To reach the aim, the authors of the article analysed the Society's office administration documents, found ideas and proposals on improving the quality of assistance to the civilian population of Siberia, examined reports in which thoughts were expressed on ways to establish links between the practitioners of Tomsk Province and Siberia as a whole. Then, the information received was converted into a single concept of the Society's participation in improving the quality of medical services in the region. In the final part of the study, measures were studied that were implemented in the course of the Society's existence. The sources for the study were: (1) the Society's reporting documents, on the basis of which the ideas and proposals were identified that later formed the concept for improving the quality of medical care in the region; (2) articles in periodicals, which made it possible to reveal not only the Siberians' attitude to this phenomenon, but also the degree of implementation of the methods and approaches proposed by the Society. In the course of the study, the authors of the article came to the conclusion that the activities of the Society of Practitioners of Tomsk Province played a significant role in the development of health care in the region. Realising that it was very difficult to provide systematic medical assistance to the needy population in Siberia, the members of the Society largely organised charity work in night shifts, including night visits to patients. In an effort to popularise the problems of practitioners, they not only sought to publish their own works, but also planned to publish a newspaper. Members of the Society, together with M.G. Kurlov (professor of the Imperial University of Tomsk) and K.M. Grechishchev (the chief sanitary doctor of the city), were among the first in Siberia to announce the need for sanitary control; they also took an active part in the fight against epidemic diseases in Siberia (cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis).