The Parliamentary Committee of the Nation’s Health, Medical Assistance and Health Insurance recommended for consideration at the first reading the draft law on the public health system (No. 4142), which provides for the creation of a competent authority in the field of public health.
The committee made the corresponding decision at a meeting on Thursday.
Introducing the bill, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said that the bill provides for the creation of a single vertical of public health from the national to the local level, which will, in particular, be able to quickly respond to emergency events in the public health system, including responses to outbreaks of diseases, epidemics and accidents of various origins.
The structure of the proposed model provides for the creation of an authorized body in the field of public health at the national level.
“It can be created both from the so-called scratch and on the basis of existing structures with the status of a central executive body. This authorized body in the field of public health is subordinate to the Cabinet, and its activities are directed and coordinated by the Minister of Health. The head of the authorized body becomes and exercises powers of the chief state sanitary doctor of Ukraine,” said Liashko.
According to him, the bill provides that territorial departments of the authorized body will be created at the regional level, and the head of the territorial department will be the chief state sanitary doctor of the corresponding administrative territory.
In addition, the bill provides for the creation of a network of centers for the control and prevention of diseases, which will be formed on the basis of laboratory centers, as well as regional public health centers, which have begun to be created as part of the formation of the public health system.
Centers for control and prevention of deseases at the regional level will be subordinate to the territorial body of the authorized body in the field of public health.
The bill provides that the Center for Public Health will retain its functionality and expertise and will enter the new system as a state institution.
It is assumed that the financing of the new system will be carried out from the state budget provided for expenditures on state public health programs; it is also additionally provided for the possibility of attracting funds from local budgets allocated for financing local public health programs.
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The European Union has launched a project entitled “Support to Ukraine for Developing a Modern Public Health System” on December 12, the Public Health Center (PHC) reported. The project will help the government to implement public health reform in line with its obligations under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, reads the statement on the website of the PHC.
The experts will consult the Health Ministry of Ukraine, the PHC and the regional public health centers, help to draw up laws and regulations, analyze and implement the EU practices.
According to the statement, the project is aimed at streamlining the public health system in Ukraine with the EU practices, creating a sustainable epidemiology surveillance system to control contagious and non-contagious diseases and introducing the International Health Regulations to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease.
In addition, the project will provide support for reform of the blood donation service in Ukraine via the development of a modern blood safety system in line with the EU standards. The project will also help to improve the quality control system, create donor registers and unified standards for blood transfusion, promote voluntary blood donation and establish an independent competent agency in the sphere of blood safety.
The EU project “Support to Ukraine for Developing a Modern Public Health System” will be implemented from 2019 until 2022 by the GFA Consulting Group GmbH (GFA) in consortium with the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland (THL). The budget of the project is EUR 3 million.
