President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a conference call with government officials to verify the implementation of measures aimed to provide the medical sector with everything necessary to combat COVID-19 and update anti-epidemic actions.
"At what stage the issue of raising the salaries of doctors is? Our doctors, who heroically save lives during the coronavirus crisis," the Head of State addressed Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov.
The official reported that doctors would receive a higher salary in late September. He noted that the National Health Service is currently signing contracts with 1,600 hospitals, and agreements have already been signed with a third of the institutions. The Minister of Health noted that additional 6 billion hryvnias have been allocated for this increase by the end of the year.
"We promised financial improvements to the healthcare workers. We are responsible for this. I expect that the government will fulfill its promises to Ukrainians," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The President asked the Minister of Health to explain why 100 million hryvnias provided in the budget for the purchase of ventilators have not yet been spent. In addition, out of 2.9 billion hryvnias allocated for the provision of MoH laboratories and the purchase of personal protective equipment only 514 million hryvnias were spent. So far, no equipment has been purchased for the ER departments of hub hospitals, although UAH 5.3 billion has been allocated from the budget.
"Already in October, the first 120 ER departments out of more than 200, which we promised, will be ready. There will be ER departments, but there will be no equipment,” the Head of State said.
The President also stressed that the budget must envisage funds for the creation of a modern biological laboratory in Ukraine, where the best domestic scientists will work on the development of vaccines.