While introducing the primary healthcare reform in rural areas, we must first of all take into account the peculiarities of Ukraine. And this concerns a large number of people living in rural areas – 33%. And for example, in Germany the rural population amounts to 5-7%. Therefore, our main task is to bring medical service closer to the people, living there, informed Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, in the “Modern Hromada” programme of the Ukrainian Radio. (listen to the programme).

"Today, healthcare service is almost absent in the countryside. It exists either at the rayon level in the form of consultations of specialised doctors, at the oblast level or in large cities. And that is why our task is to bring healthcare services closer to people, to radically change its quality, and to reduce the number of visits to rayon hospitals. This is what the law, initiated by President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and intended to solve the issue of accessibility and quality of healthcare in rural areas, is aimed at," said Hennadii Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister stressed that today there is a sufficient number of family doctors in Ukraine, who work at the primary level. But the conditions and opportunities they have do not allow even a “gifted doctor” to provide high-quality medical service to every Ukrainian.

"The President's initiative is not only to introduce modern approaches to premises and medical equipment, but first and foremost – state-of-the-art methods, telemedicine, which can record data, transfer them to secondary level and receive very prompt advice from specialised doctors on narrow-focused issues," Hennadii Zubko said.

According to him, all indifferent and active citizens, who aspire to change their future and live in a European state, should join the process of implementation of any high-quality service. "The healthcare reform is not a minor pointwise repair of outpatient clinics or rural health posts, it is a fundamental change in the conditions for carrying out professional consultations of doctors, involvement of family doctors precisely in the rural areas, creating proper work conditions," the official said.

Since September 2017, MinRegion and the Ministry of Health have been working together to create a system that would provide high-quality primary services in rural areas. The methodology of the medical network of outpatient clinics, where the doctor will be located, has been developed and approved, the area of ​​accessibility and the number of people to be served by the doctor, who will cooperate with the secondary level, as well as the list of equipment, treatment protocols, etc., have been defined.

The "Modern Hromada" programme is released on Ukrainian Radio with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme every Wednesday at 19:30.