Polyclinics reorganisation to be considered again in Mykolaiv: now six outpatient clinics are to be merged with centre №3

Mykolaiv City Council will consider the reorganisation of primary healthcare centres for the second time. This time, it is a question of merging six IPCs into Primary Healthcare Centre №3.

The relevant draft decision will be submitted to the next session of the city council, according to NikVesti.

«According to the draft decision, six primary healthcare centres are to be merged with the Primary Healthcare Centre №3»: polyclinics №1, №2, №4, №5, №6 and №7. It is stated that the reorganisation will take place while maintaining the network of family outpatient clinics and the scope of healthcare services.

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The purpose of the reorganisation, as stated in the document, is to improve the quality of medical services and optimise the costs of managing medical institutions. It is envisaged that all property of the merged institutions will be transferred to the new Centre, and an updated charter will be approved.

A draft decision on the reorganisation had already been submitted to the previous session, but it was supposed to merge five polyclinics with two others — №2 and №3. However, the deputies unanimously withdrew this issue from the session.

Reorganisation of Mykolaiv hospitals

As you know, Mykolaiv's healthcare department came 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 provided.

Olena Kiselyova, 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 No. 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.