MEDICAL

REFORMS IN
UKRAINE
NAME-MIRZA SAAD AHMED
GROUP-2B
SUBGROUP-6
Subject-MEDICAL LAW
Introducing the government-
guaranteed package of health
care services
■ The Government has assumed clear obligations to fund medical services.
Budget funds are already being distributed by medical services needed
by patients on equal conditions for all people. The government-
guaranteed package of health care services will be based on health care
priorities in Ukraine within public funding limits.
■ The government-guaranteed package of health care services (the
medical guarantees program) will include a rather wide range of out- and
in-patient care and medications. The cost of such services will be borne
in full by the National Health Service of Ukraine.
Single national purchaser
of health care services
■ The National Health Service of Ukraine was created on March 30, 2018 in record
time as a central government agency carrying out the main principle of the medical
reform, "money follows the patient", and paying the price of health care services
that have been actually provided.
■ The National Health Service of Ukraine contracted (as of October 2018) with as
many as 623 community-owned and private health care institutions and self-
employed therapists that provide primary health care. It is for the first time that
Ukrainians will be free to choose their therapist in a health care institution
regardless of the form of ownership, and NHSU pays for the guaranteed package of
primary health care services on an equal footing to all partner institutions of the
Service.
Implementing the e-Health
system
■ Obsolete paper-based reporting will pass into oblivion. All
medical records will become electronic. This will lift some
burden off the doctors, enable them to provide better-quality
and faster health care to patients, and rule out loss of
patients' medical data.
■ This will also enable collection of data about the need for
district-specific services, more accurate price-setting and
quality control of health care.
The Affordable Medicines program

■ In April 2017 the Government started the Affordable Medicines

program. Patients with cardiovascular diseases, Type II diabetes, or
bronchial asthma, are entitled to medications free of charge or at a
fraction of the price.
■ To join the program, they need to request a prescription from their
doctor and get the medications at the drugstore.
■ Ukrainians are already used to the Affordable Medicines program as
the first marker of fundamental changes in the health care system.
As many as over 6.6 million Ukrainians have used the program and
got drugs based on over 28 million prescriptions worth UAH billion
1.3. Today, 7,937 drugstores participate in the program.
Transparent and effective
purchasing of medications
■ Optimizing medication purchasing is an important component of health care
transformation. So far, corruption practices have been minimized. The next step
is to create a modern national purchasing system. On September 26, 2018, the
Government adopted the Concept of Reform of Purchasing of Medicines and
Medical Devices, Auxiliaries, and Other Medical Products
■ The Concept involves creating an effective mechanism of providing medicines
where the patient receives high-quality treatment in the most convenient
manner.
■ The most optimal method of delivery to the patient is chosen for every drug
and medical device listed for centralised purchasing.
Reforming medical education
■ Change in medical education is an integral part of transformation of the
health care system in general. Systemic and consistent change will make
Ukraine's medical education more competitive, push it to an absolutely new
level and, as a result, improve the quality of health care services. In its
Medical Education Development Strategy, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine
proposes a comprehensive approach to introducing qualitative changes in
medical education for the first time since Ukraine's independence.
■ This reform aims to build a high-quality system of higher medical education
in Ukraine to raise health care professionals with a qualification that meets
international standards.
Cons of healthcare in
ukraine
■ In the Ukrainian health system the failure of its efficiency, both in terms of treatment,
and preventive interventions, is also well illustrated by other epidemiological data.
Mortality due to infectious and parasitic diseases between 1990 and 2015 increased
from 11.78 to 21.67 deaths per 100,000 population.
■ Measures that are highly susceptible to systemic changes also illustrate significant
negligence of the Ukrainian system. Infant mortality rate in the period 1990–2015
decreased from 16.6 to 8.1 deaths per every 1000 live births.
■ Ukraine has over 2200 hospitals and over 400,000 hospital beds (5,22 hospitals and
890,7 beds per 100,000 population) in the public sector. In per capita terms, this is more
than in EU countries. But the facilities have outdated equipment and very few are able
to provide complex care.