Draft Law 'On Healthcare Institutions and Medical Servicing’ Made Public

On May, 5, 2014, the MoH of Ukraine brought forward on public agenda the Draft Law of Ukraine ‘On Healthcare Institutions and Medical Servicing’ (‘the Draft law’- hereinafter) that identifies the specifics of the activities performed by businesses in healthcare, principles of their functioning and medical servicing of the general public at the cost of public funds.

The Draft law provides classification of healthcare institutions, specifically, by types of medical assistance the healthcare institutions are categorized as follows:

1. healthcare institutions that provide emergency outpatient medical assistance (medical and obstetrical stations, ambulance stations, medical stations, first aid rooms);
2. healthcare institutions that provide in-patient and/ or secondary (specialized) medical assistance (multifield hospital/ child health treatment centre for intensive care, hospital/ child health treatment centre for in-patient care, diagnostic centre, specialized medical centre (specialized hospital) (one-field institution);
3. healthcare institutions for provision of tertiary care (multifield oblast, republic hospitals of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, central city hospitals of Kyiv, hospitals of Sevastopol/ child healthcare hospitals (clinical hospitals inclusive);
4. emergency health care institutions;
5. hospices;
6. healthcare institutions for medical rehabilitation;
7. university hospitals;
8. clinics of research institutions/ university clinics;
9. medical institutions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Ministry of Home Affairs of Ukraine, Security Service of Ukraine, other military units and special task forces that are created under the legislation of Ukraine;
10. pharmaceutical entities (drugstores).

A covenant of the Draft law shall define budget for the healthcare institutions foreseeing transition from financing state and municipal institutions to payment for the services provided under the agreements for medical servicing of the general public.

It is noteworthy that on May, 15, 2014, the Draft law was discussed at the meeting of the General Council under the MoH of Ukraine. The participants voiced the necessity of further elaboration of the Draft law to enable fulfillment of the tasks in reforming medical servicing that the document is to resolve.