{
  "id": 10741366,
  "title": "Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk to close two of its five maternity hospitals after regional birth rate nearly halves",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/29/siberian-city-of-krasnoyarsk-to-close-two-of-its-five-maternity",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-29T17:13:21.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/09/29/siberian-city-of-krasnoyarsk-to-close-two-of-its-five-maternity-hospitals-after-regional-birth-rate-nearly-halves"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Krasnoyarsk, a city in Siberia, plans to shut down two of its five maternity hospitals by the end of 2026. This reduction will leave only one maternity hospital in Sovetsky District and none in Leninsky District. The Krasnoyarsk regional Health Ministry cited a significant decrease in the birth rate as the reason for the closures, reporting a nearly halving of births from 44,000 in 2014 to 23,000 in 2025. The Health Minister, Alexey Konovalenko, stated that the hospitals now have more capacity than needed for the actual demand. However, the staff at the hospitals facing closure strongly oppose these decisions. They reported being threatened with relocation or retraining if they resisted, and warned that losing their positions in medicine would be difficult, especially if they upset the chief doctor or the Health Ministry. Both hospitals have received 133 staff members' support, all of whom opposed the closure.",
  "summary": "Two of Krasnoyarsk’s five maternity hospitals, Nos. 4 and 6, will close at the end of 2026. That will leave Leninsky District without a maternity hospital and reduce the number in Sovetsky District from two to one. Staff at both hospitals oppose the closures and have called on Moscow to intervene.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}