European Union will help Ukraine to reform health care

Today the death rate of able-bodied people in Ukraine (25- 54 years old) is twice as high as that in other European countries, and some international experts estimate that our life expectancy will soon drop as low as 66 years old. Despite the constitutionally guaranteed universal right to health protection, in reality it’s mostly well-to-do people who enjoy the right to receive medical aid. To change this situation the European Union has offered Ukraine a project to develop secondary medical aid aimed at creating an active, effective, and equitable system of health care in our country. This project, worth four million euros, is to be implemented over the next two and a half years by foreign specialists in three regions of Ukraine: Zhytomyr, Poltava, and Kharkiv. Soon one more region will be designated as a so-called “control” region, for which the program of strategic development of secondary medical aid will be developed.

According to project head Greta Ross, cooperation with Ukrainian physicians will cover various areas. On the national level, together with foreign experts our officials will determine the necessary legislation to ensure that every Ukrainian will receive quality medical aid. This will be followed by on-site work.

“A model of a perfect health care institution will be created and tested in polyclinics and hospitals. It will be based on the experience of advanced European countries and will include all elements of health care, starting from registering patients and filling out their case histories to laboratory analyses. The strategy of training health care system leaders has been already worked out and tested. We aim at training Ukrainian experts who will continue to implement our plans,” Ross said.

This project will be carried out by foreign and Ukrainian experts who have extensive experience in reforming health care systems in Eastern Europe. They will share with Ukrainian physicians their knowledge of spending state budget resources, planning hospital work, investing, equipment supplies, professional training, quality control, and applying information technologies.

This project is especially attractive to the Ukrainian health care authorities because its organizers will help involve investors, who will not only be able to share their experience, but also provide some material aid for hospitals.

“This project interests us because it will help us create a computer network in the hospital, calculate our expenses, and work out ways to reduce them. It is not the bed that cures, but the technology that is applied. Adopting new methods of diagnosis and treatment will enable us to reduce the bed/day ratio and thus to economize our budgetary funds (an estimated UAH 1-1.5 million annually),” said Mykhailo Borshchevsky, head doctor of the Zhytomyr Regional Hospital.

Despite some Ukrainians’ pessimism (they say that our physicians simply cannot help being bribed) Yurii Voronenko, rector of the Shupyk National Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education, is quite positive about the European Union’s efforts to assist our health care.

“Today our country is declaring cooperation with the European Union in the spheres of education and health care, and we can see that the EU is ready to help. I am sure that this will result in a positive impact, and our health care will soon reach the European level,” he said.

Most experts think it is now the Verkhovna Rada’s turn to act. It has to start working to change health care legislation. The changes should include medical insurance, guaranteeing patients’ rights, and quality control of medications and medical services.