Health Services in a Soviet Auto Plant

Abstract

MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING and good relations between a shop's physician and its management are considered very important at the Gorky Automobile Works in the Volga region of Central Russia. The chief of the plant's medical services, Dr. I. Grinvald, stated in an interview, We are doing everything in our power to systematically draw the attention of the factory management and the public to various health aspects among workers. Every month, the Gorky enterprise gathers information on the number of illnesses among its 20,000 employees and the sanitary conditions of its shops, and the data are processed in the plant's computer center. The results are submitted to the plant's management, to the trade union committee, to the accident prevention department, and to the management of the shops and services. The rate of absenteeism due to illness is an important factor in quarterly and annual production reports. Therefore shop managers zealously approach the dynamics of illness and accidents among workers, juxtaposing them with graphs of production fulfillment.