«Prepare money, there will be problems with this»: Sienkevych on withdrawal of the issue of merging hospitals and polyclinics in Mykolaiv from the session
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- Yuliia Boichenko
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12:50, 29 May, 2025
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, commenting on the withdrawal of the issue of reorganising medical institutions from the city council session, said that the city would have «big problems», which would need to be solved at the expense of the local budget.
He said this during an online session of the city council on 29 May, according to NikVesti.
«Politics and some relationships have interfered with this issue. We have already voted, I propose not to discuss this issue. But, as they say, «mark my words», we will have big problems with this in the near future. As the saying goes, get your money ready,» said Alexander Sienkevych.
After that, Fedir Panchenko, the head of the city council's budget committee and a deputy from the «Propozytsiia» party, added that Mykolaiv's budget currently has no extra funds.
«If we are talking about money, I want to say that there is no money — there is nothing to cook,» he added.
Reorganisation of Mykolaiv hospitals
As you know, Mykolaiv's healthcare department has come up with 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.
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.
Merger of polyclinics
Five of the city's seven medical centres may also disappear. The decision to be submitted to the city council for consideration involves the merger of five polyclinics with two others, №2 and №3. In particular, polyclinics №1 and №7 are to be merged with centre №2, and polyclinics №4, №5, and №6 with centre №3.
At the same time, the staff of Primary Health Care Centre №1 in Mykolaiv appealed to the head of the regional military administration, Vitalii Kim, the mayor of the city, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and the National Health Service to assess the actions of the city health department, which wants to liquidate profitable family outpatient clinics. The doctors report psychological pressure, mass dismissals and devastating consequences of this decision for patients and the city's healthcare system.
Commenting on the doctors' disagreement with the reorganisation, Iryna Shamrai, head of Mykolaiv's healthcare department, reminded that some of the heads of the primary healthcare centres are temporary and may not have the necessary qualifications.
The staff of Primary Healthcare Centre №6 in Mykolaiv also asked not to merge them with other institutions and to allow them to continue operating as a separate centre with legal status.
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 had been 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 preserve only one specialised medical facility in the city a mistake.
Чому ви читаєте «МикВісті»? Яка наша діяльність найбільш важлива для вас? Та чи хотіли б ви стати частиною спільноти читачів? Пройдіть опитування, це анонімно і займе 5 хвилин вашого часу