The Ministry of Health violates the rights of citizens to healthcare services and prevents private clinics from entering the single medical space, according to the Association of Private Medical Centers of Ukraine.
“The Ministry of Health of Ukraine does not allow private healthcare institutions to form a capable network and routes of medical care, thus pushing them out of the single medical space. Currently, attempts are being made to create an artificial infrastructure of medical institutions that will receive priority and preferential funding from the state and local budgets, which does not take into account the capacity of private medicine and hinders its development, as well as violates the right of patients to choose a medical institution to receive medical care,” the association said in an open letter to government agencies.
According to private healthcare market participants, such actions impede the implementation of high-quality progressive models of medical care, transparent financial settlements, and promote the practice of informal payments for patients, potentiating the development of corruption schemes in the healthcare sector.
“Artificial obstacles are systematically created for the participation of privately owned medical institutions in the medical guarantees program through constant changes in the rules, regulations and criteria for concluding contracts with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU), which is a significant threat to changing the course of the declared healthcare reform in Ukraine and creates risks of irrational spending of state budget funds to create new capacities in public medical institutions instead of using and attracting existing ones.
Private healthcare market participants note that private healthcare facilities “are now deprived of an equal opportunity to purchase blood products and can only purchase them if there is a surplus of such products in blood centers.”
The private healthcare market operators also emphasize “discriminatory regulations against healthcare workers working in private medical institutions.”
In particular, the association states that the Ministry of Health, using administrative resources, is actively promoting a 100% quota for booking medical workers who work in state-owned and municipal healthcare facilities, grossly violates the rights of private healthcare facilities to be recognized as critical and introduces discriminatory norms.
“Such a state policy creates extremely unfavorable conditions for attracting investment in private healthcare, as the lack of state guarantees, unfavorable environment for business development, weak investment protection through the creation of discriminatory norms by the authorities will directly impede the stable participation of potential international and national investors and contribute to the formation of a negative international image of our country,” the association emphasized.
