Head of the Committee on public health of Ukraine Tetiana Bakhteeva proposed to create the unitary disabled people register.
“Unfortunately, the Health Ministry can not provide accurate statistics on how many disabled people there are in Ukraine, mainly because it still has no valid unitary register,” Bakhteeva said during the Public humanitarian council chaired by President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych on Dec. 22.
There are some 3 million disabled people in Ukraine today. However, this data is wrong and understated, according to Bakhteeva. At the beginning of 2010, there were over 160, 000 disabled children only aged from 1 to 17. Each year this number is increasing by some 20, 000 children.
A young man sitting on wheelchair takes part in a protest rally organized by disabled groups in central Athens on Dec. 3. Protest organized said the country’s financial crisis has led to benefit cuts and greater hardship of disabled Greeks (AP/ Petros Giannakouris)
“Unlike many other countries, Ukraine has not yet created any unitary disabled people register to make nation’s health system work better. It is still among the main disadvantages of Ukrainian Health Ministry,” Bakhteeva said.
