At a meeting with Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko and Director General of the National Children’s Specialized Hospital “Okhmatdyt” Volodymyr Zhovnir, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the problems that exist in providing highly specialized medical care to children.
The participants of the meeting focused on the issue of shortage and dispersion of highly professional staff, which prevents receiving the necessary medical care on a "closed cycle" basis, on the current planning decisions that do not allow to build a safe inpatient route.
The problems of insufficient technological support of regional children's hospitals and lag in the development of technologies were also touched upon, due to which only 14% of children's hospitals perform more than 50% of highly complex operations.
The Head of State was informed about the real state of affairs in the provision of the new building of Okhmatdyt hospital with the latest equipment and further ways to develop the institution's capacity.
“Okhmatdyt is an institution that is recognized far beyond Ukraine. It is a leader in pediatric medicine, which should implement the latest best practices for the treatment of children. We understand that the hospital buildings do not meet modern building codes, and the condition of some departments is close to emergency. Our task this year is to fully launch the newly built hospital building and make a new project for the further functioning of the National Children's Specialized Hospital "Okhmatdyt" as a single medical space, which provides medical care to both pregnant women and children," Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.
The President noted that by the end of the first quarter of 2021, the Ministry of Health must submit a justification for the number of facilities that will correspond to Okhmatdyt and be part of a network of interregional children's medical and diagnostic centers with multifunctional infrastructure.