The proportion of unjustified hospitalizations in Ukraine is estimated at approximately 38%, and in general therapy wards, up to 65% of bed-days may be excessive, said Yevhen Gonchar, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Health, in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
The Ministry of Health observes the highest number of such cases in therapeutic specialties, particularly in neurology, cardiology, and endocrinology.
According to Gonchar, reducing unjustified hospitalizations should not lead to a reduction in the number of doctors. Some specialists who are currently employed primarily in hospitals will be able to devote more time to outpatient care.
This should increase access to subspecialists for patients who currently sometimes have difficulty seeing a doctor because the doctor is busy in an inpatient ward.
Another area of transformation could be the further development of same-day surgery. Over the past three years, the number of such surgeries in Ukraine has already more than tripled.
Source: An exclusive interview with Yevhen Gonchar, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Health, given to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The introduction of uniform hospitalization criteria in Ukraine does not mean an automatic reduction in the hospital network; however, complex medical procedures will increasingly be concentrated in facilities capable of ensuring the necessary level of safety, said Yevhen Honchar, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Health, in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, in most communities where hospitals currently operate, medical care facilities should remain. The key issue is the range of services that a specific facility is capable of providing safely.
A small hospital does not necessarily need to perform surgical procedures or deliver babies if it lacks a sufficient number of specialists and the necessary infrastructure.
In particular, safe round-the-clock monitoring of surgical patients requires several anesthesiologists, whereas small facilities sometimes have only one surgeon and one anesthesiologist on staff.
At the same time, basic services—family medicine, consultations with a cardiologist, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and other specialists—must remain as geographically accessible as possible.
Thus, the development of the hospital network will proceed simultaneously in two directions: the concentration of specialized care and the preservation of a broad network of basic medical services.
HOSPITAL, HOSPITALIZATION, MEDICINE, Ministry of Health, REFORM
Vaccination against the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease reduces the risk of hospitalization and severe disease by 15 times, according to the website of the Ministry of Health.
According to a report citing preliminary data from the analysis of COVID-19 cases in Ukraine over the past three months, only 0.7% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 were fully vaccinated, and 0.4% of those hospitalized were fully vaccinated.
The risk of getting sick among unvaccinated people is almost 8.5 times higher, and the risk of being hospitalized is almost 15 times.
The Ministry of Health notes that these are preliminary data, and they do not take into account asymptomatic diseases, as well as those cases in which patients did not do tests and did not seek medical help. However, statistics shows that all vaccines used by Ukraine effectively prevent severe disease.
