Yalta, June 2 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that healthcare reform is a priority in public policy, and added that the state will always seek to protect maternity and childhood.
"Healthcare reform is a priority in government policy, while the protection of maternity and childhood is what we’ll always do, and we’ll bring our medical facilities to the modern level," he said at the opening ceremony of the reconstructed maternity hospital in Yalta on Thursday.
"It’s nice to participate in such a ceremony. It’s a joyful event for expectant mothers and current parents. We know how important it is for our children and grandchildren to be born in modern hospitals," he told the staff of the hospital.
Yanukovych noted that the hospital had not been reconstructed after its opening in 1967, and that a year ago, the leadership of the state and the Yalta city administration had jointly allocated funds for its reconstruction.
He said that Hr 20 million had been spent on the reconstruction of the building of the maternity hospital, of which Hr 9.8 million was allocated from the local budgets of Crimea and Yalta and Hr 10.2 million from the state budget.
Yanukovych said that another Hr 10 million would be earmarked in the next two years for the final reconstruction of the hospital.
