How Centrospas was disbanded
In the appeal of Deputy Minister Andrei Gurovich, sent in May this year to the name of the former Minister of Emergency Situations Yevgeny Zinichev (RBC has a copy), it is said about the need to disband Tsentrospas. It noted that the change in the organizational and legal form of the institution from state to budget will expand the activities of the detachment and improve its material and technical base. It was supposed to optimize the staff structure of the detachment through the joining of the Tuapse search and rescue squad, the Rescuer Training Center in the village of Krasnaya Polyana and the Southern Equestrian and Cynological Rescue Center of the EMERCOM of Russia. After the merger, the total number of “Centrospas” was to be 762 people.
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The appeal to the minister said that in addition to activities within the framework of the state assignment, it is planned to carry out medical and sanitary evacuation and accompanying technical works. The appeal also says that the approximate amount of income from this type of activity may amount to 74 million rubles. Zinichev supported this initiative: on the head of the letter there is his signature and resolution.
In October this year, 5 months after the start of the reorganization, the employees of “Centrospas” wrote an appeal to Alexander Chupriyan, who at that time held the post of the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The rescuers’ letter (RBC has a copy) says that the squadron’s employees were not notified of the reorganization. It also says that when creating a budgetary institution with commercial functions, the sad experience of the Southern Regional Search and Rescue Team was not taken into account. As a result, “Centrospas” lost 3 medical and 1 educational licenses, which would have paralyzed the operation of the detachment’s airmobile hospital. The appeal also says that a quarter of Centrospas employees were dismissed, and these are highly qualified rescuers and paramedics.
As TASS reported, many workers, including international-class rescuers, who worked at Tsentrospas for decades, were fired. Another part of the employees wrote statements of their own free will, disagreeing with the changes being carried out in the detachment. It was planned that the elimination of the detachment would be completed by January 1, 2022.
“We have lost a lot of qualified people because of their refusal to accept the tough position of the detachment leadership regarding the commercialization of Centrospas and the need to provide rescue services for money. Many rescuers, including those of international class, were dismissed, due to a lack of competent personnel, the work of the medical service was blocked. For me, this path is unacceptable, ”Chupriyan told RBK.
He said that he had recommended to the leadership of the detachment “to change their position, to be more objective and not to forget about exactingness.” The head of the department believes that the main thing is human resources. “If we [спасателя] we equate it to iron, rusted, covered with dust, and we send you to write off, this is not the philosophy of the EMERCOM of Russia. From my point of view, this is unacceptable “, – summed up the acting minister
What is “Centrospas”
The airmobile rescue squad “Centrospas” was founded in 1992 and became the first squadron of the State Committee for Emergency Situations, which in 1994 was transformed into the Ministry of Emergencies.
The Centrospas squad is equipped with rescue vehicles, hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical special equipment, various transport and floating craft, parachute systems, victim search and rescue equipment, medical equipment, isolation suits and breathing apparatus for working in gaseous environments and under water, and also by means of life support (pneumo-frame modules of the base mobile camp with autonomous power supply, gas detectors and personal protective equipment, expeditionary food rations; radio stations for short-range and long-range radio communications). The task force of the detachment can work in a completely autonomous mode for up to 14 days.
The Tsentrospas detachment traveled to eliminate the consequences of various emergencies more than 50 thousand times, of which more than 200 were at the international and federal levels. More than 10 thousand lives were saved, in more than 45 thousand cases the victims were assisted.
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