On 25th February 2013, at 13:00 a public lecture of Raisa Vasylievna Bohatyriova, Minister of Public Health of Ukraine, corresponding member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, D. Sc. In Medicine, professor, was held in the form of video conference.

The lecture was listened to by more than 7,600 students, teachers, doctors and pharmacists from 19 medical and pharmaceutical educational institutions. In the on-line mode the Minister also gave answers to the questions of the listeners from different higher education establishments. The lecture of the Minister in lecture hall of the National University of Pharmacy was attended by 285 students, postgraduate students and teachers. 

According to the press service of the Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine:

25.02.2013 Леция Богарёвой Р.В. 2The Minister of Public Health of Ukraine Raisa Vasylievna Bohatyriova noted that the main reason for using such form of communication with wide audience was the need to involve many partners for realization of the health care reform.

The Minister said that during 20 years of Ukrainian independence, all attempts to introduce changes in the medical field were limited by declarations. The real steps to reform the national healthcare system occurred during the economic crisis. Only the state that is deeply convinced of such necessity, according to Raisa Bohatyriova, can expand the active phase of the reforms in such time.

According to the Minister, the urgency of modernization of the healthcare is caused by a number of reasons. First of all, the structural imbalances in the healthcare system have led to dilapidation of critically important for population primary healthcare. Out-patient clinics, medical and obstetric centers and healthcare posts, in other words, institution where a person can get the necessary first aid or advice, ceased to function properly.

Secondly, the system of disease prevention is in a state of neglect, remarked Raisa Bohatyriova. The rapid growth of the pharmaceutical market, aggressive advertising of medicines and crisis of confidence in the doctors led, among other things, to the increase in self-treatment and significant increase in the number of visits to the healthcare institutions of patients with neglected case.

In addition, the chronic shortage of funding of the industry led to the catastrophic decline in the technical equipment of hospitals and specialized healthcare institutions, said the head of the Ministry of Public Health. “Social vulnerability of the doctors, low income of healthcare workers caused the fall in prestige of the profession and, subsequently, shortage of qualified personnel and irregular commercialization of medical services,” said Raisa Bohatyriova, paying special attention to the fact that these problems are particularly acute for the most vulnerable social groups.

25.02.2013 Леция Богарёвой Р.В. 1Having said that, the Minister of Public Health noted that the problem was not only in the lack of funding of the sector, but also in irrational usage of available funds.

“All these and other problems are chronic and complex. Their solution requires consistency in action, consecution determination and will,” said Raisa Bohatyriova. All these involve the healthcare reform, the first steps of which give grounds to expect positive changes in the system, the Minister thinks. Thus, in the probationary regions where much attention was paid to the restoration and strengthening of the base of personnel and material resources of primary healthcare, significantly increased the number of visits to doctors for preventive purposes and reduced the number of requests for emergency aid.

The state has allocated a significant amount of funds to provide all necessary items for the primary healthcare. More than 500 such centers will be opened in Ukraine this year, the Minister assured. And it will happen not only in the probationary regions, but everywhere where the local communities made appropriate decisions.

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