Due to clinic complaints, the StopOdrex website has been blocked for the fourth time, while stories from former patients continue to grow
Kyiv • UNN
The StopOdrex website has been blocked for the fourth time due to complaints from the Odrex clinic. Activists are currently working on its restoration. Meanwhile, the movement is expanding and is already represented on two social platforms, Telegram and Instagram.
The website of the public movement StopOdrex, which collects patient stories about negative treatment experiences at the Odesa-based Odrex clinic, has been blocked for the fourth time due to complaints from the clinic. At the same time, activists state that they do not plan to stop, as they now have not only a website and Telegram, but also the Instagram platform Medical Truth, where they publish honest patient reviews about various medical institutions in Ukraine, UNN reports.
The StopOdrex public movement was created by the families of deceased patients of the Odrex clinic and people who consider themselves victims of treatment at this medical facility. Its primary goal was specific: to collect, archive, and publish stories about treatment experiences specifically at the Odrex clinic.
However, as the movement grew in popularity, people began sending stories about the deaths of loved ones, complications after treatment, potential medical errors, problems obtaining medical documentation, and much more regarding other clinics and individual medics. The activists could not ignore the influx of stories, so they created an Instagram page called Medical Truth. Now, Ukrainian patients can read honest reviews about a wide variety of clinics across the country.
"People started writing to us: 'I had the same experience, just not at Odrex.' Someone told us about 'Dobrobut,' someone about 'Into-Sana,' someone talked about specific doctors. At first, we really didn't know what to do with this, because StopOdrex was created by people fighting against the arbitrariness and silencing of tragedies specifically at Odrex. But then we realized: if people are coming to us, it means they have nowhere else to go,"
Meanwhile, the StopOdrex website has been blocked once again due to complaints from the Odrex clinic. Activists are not giving up and, according to them, are already working on its restoration.
"The truth is like a bone in the throat for this clinic. The StopOdrex website has been blocked for the fourth time following a complaint from Odrex. But if anyone thinks they can shut our mouths this way, they are very much mistaken. We now have not only a website, but also Telegram and Instagram. People's stories won't disappear just because someone really wants to erase them,"
In fact, the history of the StopOdrex movement has highlighted a problem much broader than a conflict between patients and a single private clinic. Patients organize into collective public movements when official mechanisms work slowly, are complex, or are unclear. They seek publicity when they cannot obtain an official response.
As a reminder
Earlier, People's Deputy of Ukraine and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Health, Medical Care, and Medical Insurance, Oksana Dmytriieva, stated that the emergence of patient associations like StopOdrex may indicate an insufficient level of public trust in official mechanisms for protecting rights in the medical field.
According to her, when people seek support, justice, and explanations not within the state system but through public initiatives and mutual aid groups, it serves as a signal to the state of a systemic problem.
A similar opinion is shared by political scientist and director of the Center for Civil Society Studies, Vitaliy Kulyk.
At the same time, political scientist and director of the Center for Civil Society Studies Vitaliy Kulyk previously noted that such initiatives arise as a response to lengthy court proceedings, the difficulty of obtaining medical documentation, and the lack of rapid mechanisms for responding to patient complaints. In his view, the self-organization of people into public movements is a sign that existing tools for protecting patient rights do not always work as quickly and effectively as society expects.