Theses on the role of private medicine in healthcare reform and post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
Alexander Dudin, Director of the CSD Medical Laboratory.
Improving the accessibility of health care through the involvement of private medical institutions.
Private medical laboratories both in covid and now during the war perform an important social function — we serve tens of millions of Ukrainians who need high-quality laboratory services.
I really liked the words of the Minister regarding “accessibility, quality and gratuitousness”. I think that the key word here is precisely “quality” and it is high-quality medical care that should be available to every Ukrainian. After all, otherwise medical institutions can begin to treat people without observing modern health standards.
As for gratuity, it all depends on the system that is built in Ukraine. For example, if the state pays utility bills, then such services are already considered free of charge.
Of course, we support such goals and want to build together those conditions that will give us the opportunity to work and develop precisely these main directions.
As for small towns and villages — I believe that small clinics are ready to go there. But how will they compete with the community hospital that is there? How can we compete if our tariffs are the same, but the material and technical base will be at our expense, and the hospital receives it from the state budget or for donor funds. In addition, cases of informal payments, which are essentially co-payments, are common.
So where are these equal conditions? It is possible that surcharges in private institutions will make it possible to balance this balance.
I want to share my experience on how we can improve the availability of quality medical services. This year we signed an agreement with NSU and provide laboratory tests on medical guarantee packages.
We didn't start with Kiev. We started doing this in Khmelnytsky region, Poltava region, in frontline Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, because we feel our social responsibility. When we went there with our range of services, people came and did not believe that they could pass tests for free, having an electronic referral with a 16-digit code. In my opinion, this significantly increases the availability of quality medical services.
What risks do I see in this story? The Ministry of Health should create a common strategy for the entire medical industry of Ukraine, rather than point-by-point management of individual public institutions. Then it will become clear to everyone that for the Ministry of Health and NSHU, private institutions should be on an equal footing with state and municipal institutions. Therefore, the system should equally develop medical institutions of different forms of ownership. We are ready to invest a lot in this relationship, because the work of private clinics is beneficial to the state budget.
Let me give an example. We are starting to work in the town of Chuguyiv, Kharkiv region, and we will make analyzes on the tariffs as well as the public medical institution, which is financed from the state budget. This institution performs such a small number of tests that it is unprofitable to conduct them. Is this not beneficial to the state?
We say that there is not enough money in the country, but we strive to develop the health care system. Therefore, we must use the available funds effectively. Therefore, I call for equal rights for institutions of all forms of ownership in the health care system.
Evaluate private institutions in the overall health system. We are ready to invest our time, our knowledge and we are already doing it.
