Hospitals to be merged and maternity hospital №3 to be transferred to the region subordination: Mykolaiv discusses healthcare reform again

The union of Mykolaiv hospitals. Photo: archive NikVesti

The Mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and the Head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, discussed what a capable network of healthcare facilities should look like. The meeting addressed the issue of merging hospitals and transferring maternity hospital No. 3 to the regional municipal property.

This was reported by Iryna Shamrai, head of the Mykolaiv Health Department, at a meeting of the Health Commission on Tuesday, 19 November, according to NikVesti.

According to Shamrai, the meeting was held on 23 October. In addition to the heads of the region and the city, the meeting was attended by specialised deputies and heads of health departments. It was agreed that the capable hospital network would have three cluster institutions — hospitals №3, №4, №5.

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• Hospital №5 (director Olena Terentieva), located in Korabelnyi district, is not planned to be reformed.
• City hospital №4 (director Larysa Derhunova) is to be merged with hospital №1 (director Mariia Hrachova, city council member from the party «Proposal») and the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMC) (director Oleksandr Demianov).
• The city children's hospital №2 (director Yurii Diachuk) is planned to be merged with hospital №3 (Dubky) (director Liubov Savchuk).

However, maternity hospital №3 (director Oleh Ishchenko) in the Namyv district, which was previously supposed to be merged with hospital №3, is now to be transferred from Mykolaiv city ownership to regional communal ownership.

According to Iryna Shamrai, a special working group has been set up to address this issue.

«We discussed the nuances, and then all the issues are up to the working group, which will work and resolve the issue of transferring maternity hospital №3 with its subsequent submission to the session», said the head of the Mykolaiv Health Department.

The commission members asked whether the conditions of clustering are met after such mergers. In response, Iryna Shamrai assured them that all medical areas are represented in these hospitals.

However, the head of the commission, Anna Nord, had many questions about the transfer of maternity hospital №3. She noted that the programme for the development and support of municipal institutions includes 19 million hryvnias for maternity hospital №3. But why allocate funds if it will be transferred to regional ownership?

Iryna Shamrai assured that there would be no problems with this.

«"You understand that we will not finance a facility that will be transferred to the region from city funds. But it is not a fact that it will be transferred. We can't help but think about its future, the institution is in our network»," said Iryna Shamrai.

However, Hanna Nord wanted to get a clear answer as to what plans the city council has for this institution and whether it is really going to be transferred. She also wanted to hear the position of Anatolii Petrov, the deputy mayor in charge, but he did not join the commission meeting.

«As far as I know, Anatolii Leonidovych did not plan to join the meeting, because he has a lot of events that he personally has to attend», replied Iryna Shamrai.

«But this is a very important issue for the formation of the network and the development programme», insisted Anna Nord.

«He is aware of it, he attends all the meetings and works out everything», added Iryna Shamrai.

«And we want to be aware of it too», said Anna Nord.

The members of the commission decided to take note of the information on the merger of the institutions and await decisions from the working group on the transfer of the maternity hospital.

It should be reminded that the issue of reorganising hospitals has already been twice failed to be supported by the deputies at the city council sessions. On 29 May, the deputies unanimously withdrew the issue of merging the city's medical facilities from the session's agenda because it had not passed the relevant and other committees.

After that, on 8 June, the deputies again considered the issue of reorganising municipal medical institutions. However, the decision did not receive the required number of votes.

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.

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 pay in full for the medical services provided.

However, some City Council members have spoken out against the merger. For example, Olena Kyseliova, the head of the deputy commission on legality of the Mykolaiv City Council and a deputy from «European Solidarity», expressed strong criticism of the plans to reorganise the city's medical network.

In turn, Olena Shaposhnikova, a deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council from the party «Proposal» and a doctor at family outpatient clinic №4, opposed the reorganisation of primary healthcare centres. In her opinion, the merger will not yield the expected savings, but instead could lead to a loss of funding, as well as patients and doctors.

Hanna Nord, head of the healthcare commission of Mykolaiv City Council, also said that if decisions are made to reorganise Mykolaiv's medical institutions and merge them, male doctors will lose their reservations from mobilisation.

The issue of merging hospitals was stalled for some time. At a session on 8 July, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that he would discuss the reorganisation with the head of Mykolaiv Regional Medical Association Vitalii Kim and the city and regional health departments.

On 21 August, members of the Mykolaiv City Council's Commission on Human Rights, Children, Family, Legality, and Publicity asked the Mykolaiv Regional Administration to speed up consideration of the issue of creating a capable network of medical facilities.