The Ministry of Health of Ukraine and WHO Held a Working Meeting: Focus on the Resilience of the Healthcare System Amid the War
Ukraine’s Minister of Health Viktor Liashko held a meeting with a delegation from the World Health Organization (WHO), headed by Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. The parties discussed the key challenges facing Ukraine’s healthcare system amid the full-scale war and further areas of cooperation.
“For many years, WHO has been a reliable partner to Ukraine in the healthcare sector. We went through the COVID-19 pandemic together. With the onset of the full-scale war, our cooperation has become even more important. Today, it covers both responses to current challenges and long-term solutions that strengthen the resilience of the healthcare system and enable us to continue providing healthcare under different circumstances. I am grateful to WHO for its consistent support and look forward to continuing our joint work.”
One of the key topics of the meeting was the continued operation of healthcare facilities amid attacks on medical and energy infrastructure. The discussion focused on preparing hospitals for the winter period, strengthening their autonomy, ensuring backup power supply, and providing the necessary medicines, medical devices, and equipment, particularly in frontline regions.
The parties also discussed the further development of the MedEvac medical evacuation programme, which enables Ukrainians requiring complex or long-term treatment to be evacuated abroad. They also discussed the development of rehabilitation, primary healthcare, emergency services, and mental health support.
In addition, the parties discussed the healthcare system’s preparedness for emergencies, including infectious disease outbreaks, as well as radiation and nuclear threats. Ukraine is currently working on a National Health Security Action Plan, which is intended to define specific measures to strengthen epidemiological surveillance, laboratory capacities, early detection of threats, and preparedness for response. This work is also part of Ukraine’s implementation of its European integration commitments in the field of public health.
The parties also emphasized the importance of combining humanitarian response with the long-term recovery of the healthcare system. This includes both meeting the current needs of healthcare facilities and the population and restoring damaged infrastructure, modernizing healthcare facilities, and enhancing their resilience.
The parties separately discussed the possibility of making greater use of the experience Ukraine has accumulated during the years of the full-scale war. This includes, in particular, medical evacuation, emergency care, rehabilitation, digital solutions and the organization of healthcare services in crises.
WHO remains one of Ukraine’s key international partners in healthcare. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Organization has supported humanitarian response, emergency medical care, medical evacuation, rehabilitation, mental and public health, as well as efforts to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s healthcare system.