President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commissioned Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov, Chief medical officer of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko and the Verkhovna Rada’s profile committee to urgently put forward ways to improve medical reform and prevent the closure of more than 300 hospitals across Ukraine.
In his video address to the Ukrainian people, the Head of State noted that since the first days of the presidency he had received contradictory information about medical reform in Ukraine. For an unbiased and objective assessment, a working group was created with the participation of academics, professors and distinguished doctors of Ukraine. They analyzed the state of affairs in medicine and came to the conclusion that medical reform has both big advantages and obvious disadvantages.
“Our mission is to keep all the positive moments and to fix the mistakes immediately,” the President emphasized.
In particular, he said, the new funding mechanism could lead to the dismissal of about 50,000 doctors and closure of 332 hospitals across Ukraine. Almost 1,000 hospitals will receive significantly less funding than last year.
“Emergency medical care, multidisciplinary hospitals, cancer centers, veterans' hospitals, most children's hospitals, psychiatric and tuberculosis services are in danger. All of this raises a number of questions. Why are physicians forced to think about their own survival instead of saving other people's lives?” Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.
The President said that he was constantly receiving appeals from medical teams from all over Ukraine with concerns about the second stage of medical reform.
“I cannot allow the reduction of ambulance crews. I cannot allow qualified pediatricians to go abroad leading to a catastrophic increase in infant mortality. Or the incidence of tuberculosis increased by a third in the next two years. That is why I call on the Minister of Health, the Chairman of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada and the Chief medical officer of Ukraine to urgently put forward solutions to these issues. We do not need to curtail reform, we need to improve it. We need recognition of mistakes and their correction,” the President emphasized.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has set the task to work out appropriate changes so that both patients and health workers at all levels are satisfied with the reform.
“From the beginning of coronavirus, I see like no other that our medical industry is not just vulnerable, but is actually a step away from a coma. And the only thing that keeps it still alive is our Ukrainian doctors. I cannot allow 50,000 of them to end up on the street. During the war, no one reduces his own army. Our doctors today are the same army that protects the health of Ukrainians. Therefore, I am waiting for the relevant decisions from all authorized persons,” the Head of State emphasized.