Shamrai is against the transfer of Mykolaiv hospitals to the regional authorities, because it will be like the liquidated Children's Home: «Today we have abandoned children»

Iryna Shamrai opposes the idea of the regional authorities to reorganise Mykolaiv hospitals, archive photo NikVesti

Iryna Shamrai, head of the Mykolaiv Health Department, said that the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration proposes that the city transfer Maternity Hospital №3 and City Children's Hospital №2 to the regional ownership in order to join them to the regional medical institutions. But it opposed this decision.

This was discussed during a meeting of the deputy commission on legality of the Mykolaiv City Council, which discussed, in particular, the issue of reorganisation and merger of several city hospitals, NikVesti.

Iryna Shamrai said that a few days ago, together with the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, she attended a meeting with the head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration. A proposal was voiced there to join maternity hospital №3 to the regional clinical hospital, as they are located next to each other.

«They would like to see the third maternity hospital, which is located opposite, attached to the regional hospital. I want to say that we planned the third maternity hospital as a municipal perinatal centre within a capable network, but unfortunately the oblast does not see it as a separate perinatal centre. It sees it only as an extension of the regional hospital,» said Iryna Shamrai.

According to Iryna Shamrai, the regional authorities propose to merge the city children's hospital №2 with the regional children's hospital, as they are institutions of the same profile and compete for patients.

«As for the second children's city hospital, there was a proposal from the current head of the regional health department to merge the second children's city hospital with them. Because it is a competitor for them today. I, for one, believe that if there is competition, the patient has a choice of where to receive medical care. And if there is a regional children's hospital in one part of the city and a second city children's hospital in another, the patient will be able to choose where he or she receives better care,» said Iryna Shamrai.

At the same time, she reminded what happened to the regional children's home after it was merged with the regional children's hospital. Today it is a centre for rehabilitation and palliative care for children. According to the head of the city health department, the city children's hospital №2 will only lose if it is merged with the regional children's hospital.

«And we can see what is done with the merged institutions in the Children's Home. Today, we have abandoned children... and the regional Children's Home has been liquidated in Mykolaiv. It has not been liquidated in Kherson, Sumy or Kharkiv. We have a liquidated baby home that was merged with the regional children's hospital. We understand that if we join the second children's city hospital... where the surgical department has started working in a test mode today, with super-refurbished wards, state-of-the-art operating rooms, a team of doctors and adequate surgeons, the first consultations are already underway, we are at the stage of commissioning, we are working with sponsors to build a diagnostic centre. We have an ophthalmology department, and operations are underway. We would like to further develop this paediatric service in Mykolaiv,» said Iryna Shamrai.

As you know, the Mykolaiv Health Department has launched an initiative to reduce the number of hospitals in the city from six to three by merging them. In addition to merging hospitals, the reform will also cover maternity hospital №3, which, unlike other maternity hospitals in the city that were merged with hospitals last year and became departments, remained an independent legal entity.

• The ambulance hospital and hospital №4 are to be merged with hospital №1;
• Maternity Hospital №3 and Children's Hospital №2 — to Hospital №3 (Dubky);
• Hospital №5 (Korabelnyi district) will not be affected by the reform.

During the commission meeting, Iryna Shamrai, Head of the Mykolaiv Health Department, explained that the need to reorganise and merge large hospitals in Mykolaiv this year was due to the requirements of the National Health Service of Ukraine to provide full funding for medical services provided.

Olena Kiseliova, head of the deputy commission on legality of the Mykolaiv City Council and a member of the European Solidarity party, has strongly criticised the plans to reorganise the city's medical network.

Mykolaiv Regional Children's Hospital and the Children's Home

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As a reminder, during the inspections at the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Clinical Hospital, violations of financial and economic activities worth 2.4 million hryvnias were recorded.

It is also worth reminding that this is not the first scandalous case involving the Mykolaiv Oblast Children's Hospital. Back in July 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the hospital was in poor condition during his visit to Mykolaiv.

In one of the wards, Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the room was not adapted for a comfortable stay. In particular, the ward lacked curtain rods, curtains and air conditioning.

In early March of this year, it became known that the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office, together with NGOs, inspected children's educational institutions in the Mykolaiv region and found gross violations of children's rights. The children were fixed with belts to chairs and strollers, and a six-month-old baby suffered swelling from «tying». In other institutions, children were given expired medicines, did not receive medical care and had limited access to basic services.

The human rights activist said that according to the conditions, 89 staff members are supposed to take care of the children. However, as it turned out from the data of the Ombudsman's Office monitoring group, only two employees were looking after the children. She called the conditions in which the children were kept inhumane.

It should be noted that in April 2024, the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care was merged with the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Hospital. At the time, this decision was explained by the need to «protect» the institution from lack of funding.

In May, it became known that all the children from the regional Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care for Children in Mykolaiv had been moved to other institutions due to violations of their conditions.

Optimisation of maternity hospitals in Mykolaiv

As you know, in May 2023, the city authorities in Mykolaiv began to study the issue of merging maternity hospitals. The number of births in the city was declining. On 31 July 2023, the Mykolaiv City Council decided to reorganise maternity hospitals №1 and №2, merging them into City Hospital №1 and City Hospital №3, respectively. The head of the city health department, Iryna Shamrai, explaining the need to reorganise medical facilities, stated that over the past 7 years, the number of pregnant women in Mykolaiv had decreased by 5 times.

Due to the actual liquidation of Maternity Hospital №2 in Mykolaiv, 42 people were laid off. The staff of Maternity Hospital №2 called the decision of the city authorities to actually liquidate and retain only one specialised medical facility in the city a mistake.

Reduction of polyclinics in Mykolaiv

The idea to reduce primary healthcare centres became known in early June 2024. By order of the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, a working group was set up to audit their economic efficiency. The head of the city health department, Iryna Shamrai, told NikVesti that seven primary healthcare centres in Mykolaiv were to be reorganised on behalf of the National Health Service and the Ministry of Health. However, the NHSU reported NikVesti that they did not give recommendations on «optimisation of» polyclinics, and the Ministry of Health assured that this idea was a local initiative, not a recommendation. Later, the mayor of Mykolaiv explained in a video message to the citizens that the cuts would not affect doctors, only administrative staff.

At the time, the city council members did not support this initiative, and later the Secretary of the Mykolaiv City Council, Dmytro Falko, said that the number of primary healthcare centres would be reduced in 2025.