The first new outpatient clinics in rural areas will be put into operation in late October – early November, informed Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister for Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, during the conference call with the regions regarding the state of implementation of the primary healthcare reform in the countryside.

“We evaluate the state of work implementation by oblasts due to simple criteria. This is the development of project documentation, examination, announcement of the start of construction works, conclusion of a contract with contracting organisations, etc. The Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Kirovohrad and Rivne Oblasts lead in fulfillment of these tasks. The Chernihiv, Lviv, Chernivtsi, Odesa and Zakarpattia Oblasts are lagging behind,” noted Hennadii Zubko.

He informed that MinRegion had already approved 513 new projects for outpatient clinics’ construction in rural areas. In general, Ukraine needs 688 of new outpatient clinics. The issue of providing 497 service cars for medical specialists, who will work in new outpatient clinics, is also approved.

“The healthcare reform concerns, first of all, the primary healthcare system. High-quality medical service for the population is not possible in outdated infrastructure. We cannot talk about the reform that will take place in the fungus-affected premises, without water and heat supply, sewage system. The initiative of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the law on the primary healthcare reform in the rural areas, adopted by the Parliament, is precisely aimed at complete modernisation of the existing infrastructure – construction of new outpatient clinics, surrounding territory, conditions for service delivery, upgrading of medical equipment, etc.” said Hennadii Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister stressed that there are cases, where oblasts are not actively involved in the implementation of the primary healthcare reform on the ground. “There is either no desire to actively participate, or lack of managerial skills, competences and professionalism. Last week, the MinRegion’s Commission considered the issue of removal of several new projects for the construction of outpatient clinics. This was due to two aspects – the lack of co-financing from the local government and unavailability of land plot. Therefore, I immediately question the suitability of such people for positions occupied. In such cases, the OSA leadership should go public and talk about incapacity of local self-government bodies in these issues,” said the official.

It should be mentioned that previously the joint order of MinRegion and the Ministry of Health approved the methods of primary healthcare network formation, a list of required equipment, new technical requirements for the premises, the issue of housing and salaries of doctors. The current formed primary healthcare network comprises 5,107 institutions.