The Ministry of Health begins the next stage of medical reform — the creation of a capable network of hospitals

The government approved the decree which allows launching the next stage of medical reform. It provides for updating approaches to the definition of hospital districts and introducing modern approaches to the formation of a network of medical institutions. 

“It is through the third, so-called infrastructure, stage of medical reform that we are trying to implement the achievement of three key indicators - ensuring the availability, quality and free of charge of medical care for Ukrainians. New approaches to hospital planning will also allow us to set priorities for the post-war recovery of the healthcare system. Plans for the development and modernization of each hospital in a capable network will be clear to everyone: the patient, the manager, the owner, the NHSU and the Ministry,” Viktor Liashko comments. “We will all work to ensure that hospitals of a capable network become hospitals with a quality mark. Once in them, the patient will be able to be sure that they were taken to the medical facility that corresponds to their condition and illness, that the hospital has the necessary specialists and equipment to provide them with high-quality medical care. There will be no situations (as often happens now) when a patient with a heart attack or stroke is admitted to a hospital where modern methods of treatment are not used, for example, thrombolysis, because there are no specialists, or thromboextraction, because there is no necessary equipment, or specialists are not qualified enough to perform such procedures.”

The implementation of this reform will make it possible to efficiently distribute purchases and supplies of expensive equipment between hospitals, in accordance with their role in the capable network of the hospital district. Now hospital managers often abuse, buying equipment that then stands idle for years or turns on only a few times a year, because the institution does not have the necessary number of patients, or it does not have specialists at all who have the ability to work on this equipment.

According to the government decree, regional military administrations must submit their own vision of the hospital district plan and the formation of a capable network for approval by the Ministry of Health within two months, taking into account the development of primary healthcare institutions and emergency medical centers.

Together with a capable network of medical institutions, each region must submit a plan for the development of the hospital district, which will be reviewed every 3 years. This is the roadmap with clearly defined steps that the hospital district will follow. Now the reform will begin in 18 oblasts and in the city of Kyiv. The reform currently involves those territories where there are no active military operations. 

Of course, the war has made its own adjustments to the implementation of the reform. Currently, it will not be implemented in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Mykolaiv oblasts and on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, immediately after the de-occupation and stabilization of the situation, we will start forming a capable network of hospitals in these areas.