The Ministry of Health and USAID set priorities for cooperation for the next year

Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko and his team met with the leadership of the USAID Office of Health in Ukraine and the USAID Health Reform Support Project. They discussed the results of joint work in 2023 and plans for the next year.

“For many years we have been working together with USAID and healthcare projects. This cooperation yields concrete results and is in line with the strategic priorities of our Ministry: quality, accessible and free medical services for Ukrainians,” said Viktor Liashko. “2023 was a difficult year for the medical system, given the ongoing full-scale war. Together with our partners, we have learned to respond promptly to challenges, but not to limit ourselves to this. We are also working for the future. Reforms take time, and I am grateful to USAID for supporting us on this path.”

The USAID Health Reform Support Project provides systemic support to the Ministry of Health in developing regulations aimed at building a better and more transparent healthcare system. For example, the Government recently approved a jointly developed resolution that regulates the procedure for establishing supervisory boards in medical institutions. Supervisory boards will be established in hospitals that provide specialized medical care and have contracts with the NHSU. It is planned to involve representatives of the public. To make the mechanism fully operational, the joint work next year will include the development of relevant recommendations for hospitals and training sessions.

They also discussed further coordination of donors’ work in the field of recovery and humanitarian aid. The dashboards currently being developed allow us to see exactly where certain donor organizations are working and what kind of assistance they are providing. This allows us to significantly increase efficiency and consolidate efforts.

Another important issue is restoring access to health care in war-affected communities. To this end, the USAID Health Reform Support Project is implementing a grant program to restore medical facilities that were damaged or destroyed during the war. The program provides funding for small programs and activities. So far, 14 medical institutions have already received this opportunity.

In addition, the implementation of digitalization projects will continue next year. We are talking about numerous initiatives, including those aimed at improving data quality, data management, cybersecurity, cyber protection, improving the digital competence of healthcare professionals, and creating a data information platform. A system that will provide uniform standards and management of all available data in the medical field, as well as provide tools for their qualitative analysis.