Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, held an online Skype conference with the heads of the oblast state administrations, rayon state administrations and AH. The main issues discussed included an action plan for the development of primary healthcare in rural areas, introduction of telemedicine in the primary healthcare development, and implementation of the law “On improving accessibility and quality of healthcare services in rural areas”.

“The regions have to submit proposals for the formation of a network of primary institutions in their hromadas (in terms of AH, rayons, oblasts) and approve them with the Ministry of Health as soon as possible. The methodology for the formation of such a network was developed by MinRegion together with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (MOH). The second task is to develop a draft network of primary healthcare provision taking into account the existing primary healthcare network; future primary healthcare facilities according to the network formed within the framework of the subvention use; list of existing primary healthcare facilities, proposed to be left within the newly formed network, etc.” wrote Hennadii Zubko on his Facebook page.

According to the Vice Prime Minister, the regions should provide full information on the established network: primary healthcare facilities that need to be built and those to be reconstructed.

“There is no time for ramp-up! We all have to speed up at once! We must create conditions for the provision of high quality primary healthcare in the villages as soon as possible!,” emphasised the official.

Pavlo Kovtonyuk, Deputy Minister of Health, noted at his Facebook page that the MOH expects the regions to provide their plans for the network of primary institutions by 1 February.

“I want to say a few important things about the preparation of this plan:

1. I request oblast state administrations to submit the project of the entire area. Even if we understand that we cannot build everything right away, we have to see the whole picture.

2. Development of a draft network is your internal decision (in the region) on where and how many outpatient clinics to build. Though together with MinRegion we will check whether it meets accessibility and efficiency criteria.

3. An important condition is to ensure the presence of a doctor in this outpatient clinic. We will not build monuments to the reform – we need an infrastructure that provides assistance. As it is the doctor who provides treatment, and not a building.

I call on the regions to be actively involved in the process. Moreover, so far it has been moving dynamically and qualitatively. The one who will be the first to develop a draft network, will be the first to receive funds for the construction of new modern outpatient clinics and, along with them, affordable healthcare for villages,” wrote Pavlo Kovtonyuk.