«There is haemodialysis and experience there»: Mykolaiv City Hall explained why the EMC and the 4th hospital are being joined to №1

Emergency hospital in Mykolaiv. Photo by NikVesti

The Mykolaiv City Hall explained the criteria used to select the basic healthcare facilities for the future clustering of hospitals. The main factors were the availability of specialised departments, in particular the haemodialysis department, the total number of departments, and experience in legal registration of the merger of other medical institutions, which was key to the selection of hospital №1 for the merger of the first aid station and №4.

This was announced at a briefing on 23 May by Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv Anatolii Petrov and Head of the Health Department Iryna Shamrai, answering questions from a correspondent of NikVesti.

Earlier, the city health department came up with an initiative to reduce the number of hospitals in the city from six to three by merging them. As part of these changes, the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMC) and Hospital №4 are to be merged with Hospital №1, and Maternity Hospital №3 and Children's Hospital №2 are to be merged with Hospital №3 (the so-called «Dubky»).

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Answering the question of a journalist from NikVesti why hospital №1 was chosen as the key hospital for the cluster hospital, and not, for example, the ambulance service, Vice Mayor Anatolii Petrov named three key points for the mayor's office:

«We focused on the number of departments and the experience of the institution. The first hospital, for example, currently has 11 departments, including the only haemodialysis unit in the city. The locations of the departments in the hospital are scattered, and this is, on the one hand, a disadvantage, and on the other hand, a plus, because patients of different profiles do not overlap with each other. For comparison, the Emergency Hospital now has 7 departments. But even after the merger, no unit will lose its functionality. For example, the neurosurgery department of the Emergency Hospital will remain, and we plan to expand it. It is the only one in the city that performs complex operations on the musculoskeletal system, so it needs more specialists — anaesthetists and surgeons,» said Anatolii Petrov, Deputy Mayor of Mykolaiv.

Iryna Shamrai added that another important criterion for reforming hospitals was the experience of going through the legal and organisational procedure of merging other institutions.

«The third important factor is the existing experience of merging medical institutions. We have already gone through this procedure with several hospitals — the fifth, third and first. For example, the liquidation of the first maternity hospital lasted for a year and a half and was completed only last month. This is a complex and lengthy process, which was accompanied by a large number of legal nuances that we had not previously encountered in our daily work. The first city hospital went through the court practice within the framework of this association. Both the first and third hospitals already have experience of completing such mergers, and despite the difficulties, they have successfully coped with it,» said Iryna Shamrai.

Reorganisation of Mykolaiv hospitals

As you know, the Mykolaiv Healthcare 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 include 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, expressed strong criticism of the plans to reorganise the city's medical network.

In addition, the deputy head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration, Yurii Hranaturov, commented on the public statements made by the head of the city healthcare department, Iryna Shamrai, regarding the possible transfer of certain hospitals from the city to the regional level. According to him, this is not a political or administrative confrontation, but a long-term process of creating a single hospital district based on professional calculations and recommendations from the Ministry of Health and international experts.