The Ukrainian Health Ministry has developed a national draft program entitled "Health 2020. The Ukrainian Dimension," which is almost ready for consideration by MPs, Health Minister Raisa Bohatyriova said during the hour of questions for the government in parliament on Friday.
She noted that this program, as well as the entire reform strategy in
the health sector initiated by President Viktor Yanukovych, had been
fully brought into line with the EU’s Health 2020 policy framework, the
Health Ministry’s press service reported.
Bohatyriova also spoke in parliament about the first results of
medical reform that were achieved in four pilot regions (Vinnytsia,
Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Kyiv regions) for the last three years.
“New outpatient clinics that were properly equipped and provided with
personnel saw an increase in the number of applications for
prophylactic purposes by 17%, a reduction of ambulance calls by 15% and
reduced hospitalization of people with severe complications,”
Bohatyriova said.
She added that the experience of the creation of centers of primary
health care in pilot regions this year would be extended to other
regions, in particular, it is planned to create 548 such centers by the
end of the year. As part of the reform, it is planned to retrain 3,000
health workers into primary care doctors and increase the state order in
medical higher educational institutions for the training of such
experts to 7,500.
The minister also noted that the completion of the reform of primary
health care is slated for 2020, when the transition to the provision of
primary health care on the principles of general practice and family
medicine should be conducted throughout the country.
Bohatyriova said that preparatory work for the stage of forming a
high-quality secondary level of health care was already underway.
“We need to concentrate resources so as to move in the next few years
to qualitative changes in the provision of assistance at the secondary
level,” she said.
Bohatyriova also said that the wages of employees in pilot regions,
in particular, experts of centers of primary health care grew by 50% in
2012.
