President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy demands that doctors receive higher salaries already this month. The President stressed this during a conference call with the Prime Minister, government officials and law enforcement officials.
The President emphasized that currently too few hospitals have entered into agreements with the National Health Service of Ukraine to receive additional payments, and the Ministry of Health should keep this process under control.
"It is already the end of the month, and medical workers should receive salaries in a few days, and according to the data I received, less than a quarter of the submitted applications have been signed for additional payments to doctors. The question of providing more than 80% of beds with oxygen for patients with COVID-19 remains open as well. All these issues must be resolved," the Head of State stressed.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted that the National Health Service of Ukraine has started making payments to institutions under the concluded agreements since September 25.
"Over the next two days, 500 healthcare institutions will receive funds. Other institutions will have received them after signing contracts by the end of the week. It is important to note that more than 200 institutions have not yet submitted proposals for concluding an agreement with the National Health Service of Ukraine, which makes it impossible to pay surcharges to medical workers in time. Control over payments is personally up to the Minister of Health,” the Prime Minister reported.
The parties also stressed the need to address the issue of second-wave hospitals and their provision. In addition, the National Health Service has signed less than half of the funding agreements for healthcare institutions that did not receive it due to phase II of the reform.