On 5 May 2017, the official newspaper of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine "Holos Ukrainy" published the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Improvement of Laws on Activities of Health Care Institutions".

As it was reported, the Law provides for the implementation of measures to reform the health care system in Ukraine with the aim of establishment of a network of state and community owned health care institutions having sufficient level of independence to provide efficient and timely medical care for the people.

According to the document, health care institutions have been offered the opportunity to gain financial and administrative autonomy in terms of providing financial, material and technical resources for the health care system.

In this connection, pursuant to Article 49 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the existing network of state and community owned health care institutions will not be reduced; those institutions will continue to be owned by the state and communities and will not be subject to privatisation.

Also, the document provides for a simplified procedure for restructuring the health care institutions, both state and community owned, into public enterprises and communal non-commercial enterprises; the existing guarantee is confirmed that any funds not used by a health care institution (save for state and community owned institutions) in the current year will not be withdrawn and may be used for the purposes of financing the institution (in particular, for the renovation of material and technical base); certain matters pertaining to agreements on medical service to population have been resolved, which agreements have to be entered into in accordance with a special procedure approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

The Law shall become effective on the next day following the date of its publication and it shall be enacted in six months following the effective date of the Law.

You can find the text of the document HERE

You can find more information about the decentralisation of the health care system HERE