The merger of four hospitals in Mykolaiv is being delayed — if the reorganisation is not completed by the end of the year, medical staff may be left without their salaries

Plans are underway in Mykolaiv to finalise the merger of three municipal hospitals. Photo: Municipal Hospital №4

In Mykolaiv, plans are in place to finalise the merger of the city’s hospitals around Hospital №4. This involves City Children’s Hospital №2, the City Emergency Medical Services Hospital and City Hospital №1. According to information from the municipal property department, the legal formalities for the merger must be finalised by the end of the year, as the hospital’s future funding depends on this.

This issue was discussed on Monday, 21 September, at a meeting of the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Communal Services, NikVesti reports.

Tetiana Dmytrova, Deputy Head of the Municipal Property Department, reminded the meeting that, as part of the formation of the Mykolaiv region’s hospital network, the three city hospitals are to become part of Cluster Hospital №4 — a multi-specialist medical facility, around which these hospitals are being consolidated. To this end, the city council must approve the transfer deeds — documents that formally record the transfer of property and other assets of the three medical institutions.

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Tetiana Dmytrova clarified that this does not only concern the property transferred during the previous stage of reorganisation. The new deeds of transfer include, in particular, property that has been in use by the institutions for a long time, humanitarian aid received, and funds remaining in the hospitals’ accounts.

Councillors are also due to approve a new version of the charter of City Hospital №4. The document provides for the creation of four separate sub-units — branches that will not have the status of separate legal entities.

«I would like to note here that an entire working group of 14 people, including six city councillors, worked on this charter. These are Mariia Hrachova, Olena Kiseliova, Olena Kuzmina, Zeneida Motorna, Hanna Nord and Hanna Remennikova,» said Tetiana Dmytrova, Deputy Head of the Municipal Property Department.

Tetiana Dmytrova also reported that City Hospital №4 had already submitted documents to enter into contracts with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), and that part of the funding from the NHSU had already been received.

At the same time, she noted that, for further funding — in particular, the payment of salaries — the legal formalities for the merged hospital must be completed.

«If we do not complete this merger and establish a supervisory board by New Year’s Eve, then even with the funding packages and contracts from the NHSU, funding will not be disbursed under the terms of the agreement. That is why we have accelerated this process and believe we will manage to complete it by the New Year. As far as I am told by representatives of the medical sector, there is currently no critical situation regarding salary payments, but we must speed things up,» she noted.

During the meeting, the committee chair, Dmytro Ivanov (Propozytsia faction), noted that staff had been paid an advance, although for some junior medical staff this amounted to around 1,000 hryvnias.

Committee member Yevhen Prudnyk (an independent councillor and member of the ‘For a Healthy City’ group) asked what concrete results the hospital merger had already yielded. Tetyana Dmytrova, deputy head of the Municipal Property Department, noted that the reorganisation is still ongoing, so it is too early to assess its results.

At the same time, the possibility of increasing doctors’ pay rates was cited as one of the expected changes.

«At present, this reorganisation is only at an initial stage, so I don’t think anyone can say or even knows what results we have achieved yet. We’ve been promised that if we set up a cluster hospital, doctors’ pay scales will be increased,» said the speaker.

Once the hospital’s formal registration is complete, the plan is to register the articles of association and branches, as well as to establish a supervisory board and a board of directors. This should finalise the legal formalities of the reorganisation and define the management structure of the merged healthcare facility.

It should be recalled that the health authority was previously tasked with verifying information regarding issues with the payment of salaries, holiday pay and the provision of resources to hospitals following their merger. The relevant directive was issued by Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych.

It should be recalled that in April, members of the Mykolaiv City Council supported a decision to reorganise the city’s healthcare network, which involves the creation of a cluster hospital and the transfer of one of the maternity hospitals to the ownership of the region.

Under the decision, City Hospitals №1 and №2 and the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMCH) are to be merged with City Hospital №4.

In addition, councillors approved the transfer of Maternity Hospital №3 to the region’s ownership. The facility is set to be merged with the neighbouring Regional Clinical Hospital.

It was previously reported that supervisory boards need to be established at three hospitals in Mykolaiv — №3, №4 and №5. To this end, the city council must set up a selection committee, which will operate on a permanent basis and select members of the supervisory boards. The Committee on Legal Affairs and the Committee on Housing and Communal Services supported the draft resolution, albeit with reservations.

In August, councillors of the Mykolaiv City Council backed a decision to form a permanent selection committee to appoint independent members to the supervisory boards.