Zelensky establishes Patient Safety Day in Ukraine

Published Sept. 6, 2019 at 12:53 pm

A patient waits to be treated in the toxicology unit in a hospital treating drug users in the separatist-held capital of Donetsk on July 11, 2017. - Prior to the start of the conflict in April 2014, ex-Soviet Ukraine -- especially in its eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk -- was already battling against one of the most severe HIV epidemics in Eastern Europe. In 2015 international actors managed to stave off an imminent disaster by negotiating with Kyiv and the separatits to keep supplying antiretroviral drugs to thousands of HIV positive people in the separatist territories. Emergency funds were provided and the United Nations now estimates that about 10,000 adults and children with HIV in rebel-held areas are receiving the drugs.

Photo by AFP

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has established Patient Safety Day in the country, which will be celebrated on September 17, the press service of the head of state said.

“Recognizing the safety of patients as one of the important elements of providing quality medical care, and supporting the decision of the 72nd session of the World Health Assembly, I decide to establish Patient Safety Day in Ukraine, which is to be celebrated annually on September 17 – on the World Patient Safety Day,” the text of the decree of the head of state of September 4 reads.