Ukraine's Health Minister Oleksandr Anischenko has written a letter to regional governors and heads of regional (town) councils, asking to approve and support the regional programs for social protection of medical personnel and raising the prestige of the medical profession.
The minister’s letter is related with "the extremely difficult situation with medical staffing," the ministry said.
Currently, Ukraine is short of 46,900 doctors (including more than 6,000 in rural areas), and almost 24,500 junior medical staff.
Health care institutions are seeing extremely high labor turnover rates among doctors and nurses, particularly young specialists, the ministry said.
The Health Ministry has already drafted a Cabinet of Ministers decree about a 50% increase in wages for doctors working in rural areas.
"However, the efforts by the Health Ministry to stabilize the human resources situation in the industry must be reinforced by real help at a local level," the press release said.
