In Rzeszów, Poland, a two-day strategic session on attracting investments into the health care system of Ukraine as part of the joint project of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine with the World Bank “Strengthening the Health Care System and Saving Life” ended. During the event, an action plan was formed and priority directions for the restoration of the health care system were determined.
“First of all, we must restore access to basic medical services in the de-occupied territories, where medical care has been unavailable or significantly limited for a long time, and medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed. It is also important to ensure the restoration of the “Affordable Medicines” program in the affected regions, which is very important for people in the conditions of a significant decrease in the level of income,” said Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko.
According to him, during the strategic session, together with the experts of the World Bank and the Council of Europe, short-term tasks for implementation in 2023 in the main areas were defined and worked out. The minister also emphasized that the resumption of medical services is planned, in particular with the help of mobile teams and the implementation of a mechanism for the delivery of medicines to remote settlements.
Among other things, specific tasks were defined for the fastest possible implementation in 2023:
- expanding the scope of training of non-specialist specialists in the provision of mental health support services, in particular in cooperation with the World Health Organization;
- strengthening the capacity of multidisciplinary teams in providing psychological assistance and rehabilitation, mostly in the de-occupied territories;
- purchasing equipment for rehabilitation centers and strengthening their capacity to provide quality services;
- creation of regional centers of mental health, development of a model of the functioning of such institutions, design and estimate documentation and protocols for the provision of psychological first aid;
- comprehensive reconstruction of hospitals and primary care facilities that are part of a capable network.
The strategic session was attended by experts from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the National Health Service of Ukraine, Medical Procurement of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the Infrastructure Restoration Agency of Ukraine, as well as representatives of leading international and European financial institutions interested in providing support to Ukraine within the framework of the World Bank project.
We will remind, at the end of 2022, a new large-scale project “Strengthening the Health Care and Life Preservation System” (HEAL Ukraine) was launched, which is implemented by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine together with the World Bank. The project takes into account the clear vision of the urgent needs of the health care sector by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank and other development partners.
