On the way to the EU - a forum dedicated to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities was held in Kyiv
Improving the quality of human rehabilitation services is the key to creating the strongest rehabilitation system in Europe. This was emphasized by Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Health of Ukraine, during the National Forum of the Rights of People with Disabilities "On the Way to the EU".
“Rehabilitation is our top priority. This year, more than 100,000 patients have already received free inpatient rehabilitation care and 230,000 have received outpatient rehabilitation care. The state paid four billion hryvnias to medical institutions for this. Currently, we continue to work on implementing the concept of developing a rehabilitation system in the healthcare sector. To improve quality, the Ministry of Health initiated the development of seven rehabilitation centers of excellence. These are medical institutions that already demonstrate excellent results and apply best practices. They are centers of invaluable experience. They use advanced techniques and train specialists from multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams. In cooperation with leading European rehabilitation centers, more than 700 Ukrainian specialists from 35 medical institutions have already completed internships in foreign clinics. The Ministry of Health will continue to actively promote and support this in every possible way, as this is the modern high-quality medicine we are working to build.”
The forum discussed the significant changes that have taken place in the rehabilitation of the Ukrainian healthcare system. One of the key achievements was the introduction of a patient-centered approach to rehabilitation services. It is based on the multidisciplinary work of specialists and is focused on the individual needs of the patient. It is important that the rehabilitation system comes closer to European standards and meets the recommendations of the World Health Organization.
The concept of the rehabilitation system development stipulates that an inpatient rehabilitation department should operate at each cluster and multidisciplinary supercluster hospital. There are 221 of them in total. Currently, they are already operating in 70% of such medical institutions (154 units).
In total, thanks to the support of the state and donors, the Ministry of Health managed to purchase rehabilitation equipment for 194 medical institutions for a total of more than UAH 160 million. Also, within the framework of a joint project with the World Bank, funding has been allocated for the repair of inpatient rehabilitation units of 8 medical institutions in 6 regions — Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Khmelnytsky, and Chernihiv.
During the discussion, it was noted that social workers are now included in rehabilitation teams at medical facilities. This is an extremely important innovation, as these specialists help patients in the hospital, for example, to restore documents, apply for social assistance, or find the necessary services. A pilot project on dual training of healthcare professionals has been launched to improve the quality of education and increase the number of specialists in rehabilitation units.
The Minister emphasized further steps planned for 2025. These include the development of industry standards for rehabilitation together with practitioners, further development of centers of excellence to train multidisciplinary teams from other institutions, and the introduction of a mono-service so that each patient can receive the necessary assistance from one rehabilitation specialist if necessary.
The outpatient format of rehabilitation care is also being developed. It is primarily aimed at people who need long-term rehabilitation. The Ministry of Health will continue to work to ensure that all cluster and multidisciplinary supercluster hospitals have modern barrier-free rehabilitation departments.
For reference: every year, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, representatives of central executive authorities, public and international organizations, and persons with disabilities discuss urgent issues.
The National Forum on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities "On the Way to the EU" was organized by the League of the Strong and the Fight For Right NGO in partnership with UN Women Ukraine, the International Renaissance Foundation, and the EU Delegation to Ukraine, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES Ukraine), National Democratic Institute (NDI), MacArthur Foundation, New Democracy Fund, Kvinna till Kvinna and with funding from the Women's Peace & Humanitarian Fund, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and British aid from the UK Government.