Healthcare transformation in Ukraine: from pilot projects to sustainable results

On June 17-18, the dissemination conference in Kyiv brought together over 200 participants, including key stakeholders from Government, regional authorities, civil-society, health care practitioners, donor organizations, and academia, who discussed the ongoing healthcare transformation, challenging reforms and changes to the public health system. The conference participants also shared knowledge and valuable insights necessary to advance health reform efforts and to strengthen public health system to respond to priority health challenges.

The ‘From Pilots to Sustainable Results: HIV and Health Systems Reform in Ukraine’ dissemination conference was organized by the USAID HIV Reform in Action Project (HIVRiA) Office, Deloitte Consulting, LLP, with the support of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Strengthening the public health system is the key to responding to critical health challenges, and improving the quality of health care at the national, regional and local levels.

"According to Francis Fukuyama, effective reforms require building a coalition of social groups interested in change. Every day, when speaking to healthcare practitioners or communicating with international partners, I observe the gradual formation and strengthening of the coalition in favor of healthcare transformation in Ukraine," noted Pavlo Kovtoniuk, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine.

Since 2013, the USAID HIV Reform in Action Project (HIVRiA), implemented by Deloitte Consulting, LLP, has supported the Government of Ukraine to strengthen Ukraine’s health system infrastructure to ensure effective and sustainable delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services to key populations. At the conference, the HIVRiA team presented the key achievements and lessons learned, and invited participants to discuss how this experince can be incorporated into future reform efforts to support Ukraine’s health system. 

Representatives from regional and municipal administrations from Poltava, Ternopil, and Cherkasy oblasts presented successful examples of health system strengthening and introducing positive changes at the local level. The sustainability of HIV services at the regional and local levels was highlighted by representatives of municipal and regional administrations from Kremenchuk, Odesa, Kherson, Kyiv and Kryvyi Rih.

The conference focused on strengthening the public health system and achieving the sustainability and scalability of health systems at the regional and local levels. Other important topics included primary health care, developing national health institutions­, planning resources for HIV sustainable response, quantifying and developing health workforce, as well as the tools for successful health reform implementation.