CO “100% Life’s” Statement

On behalf of the 290,000 patients who receive our care, we are extremely concerned about the statement by the Minister of Health regarding the actual halt to health care reform. We believe that such actions can harm both patients and doctors.

Since the first day, we have supported changes in the medical system of Ukraine. This is the first reform in history that really aims to provide patients with understandable and accessible medical services. And this is the first reform when patients have been asked about their desires. It can already be stated that radical changes have improved access to medical services and reduced the level of corruption at the primary level.

“Your family doctor,” “money follows the patient,” “effective procurement,” “E-Health” and “affordable medicines” – all these phrases for us are new opportunities that the reform has presented.

This is what happens today. The authorities focus their attention on the part of the medical system, which survived only at the expense of the general funding system and was not used to developing and competing for the patient. Managers and doctors, who prepared their facilities, attracted specialists, investors and experts to obtain funding for their QUALITY services from the state, have been deceived. The state is sending a signal to doctors – there will be no changes.

From the first day of the President’s work, we asked the head of the state to meet with patient-led organizations and hear the voices of those who all the time have been fighting for their lives. Unfortunately, this has not happened this year.

If the reform is stopped, in the coming months we will receive:

• Funding problems for almost all doctors and hospitals, as the old contracts will cease to be valid.
• Risk of interruption of services for patients with chronic nosologies and members of vulnerable groups.
• Created motivation of doctors and medical staff, which really started to provide high-quality services for patients and expected a decent pay.
• Concerns expressed by the international community and partners, which invested funds in the reform, about the inconsistency and non-transparency of decision-making.

We appeal to the President of Ukraine to meet with patient-led organizations and hear our arguments.

We ask the Ministry of Health to publish an audit of the reform results the Minister appealed to and Minister’s proposals for implementation. We demand to involve patient- and expert-led organizations to discuss all changes.

We turn to the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Health Care to consider the results of the audit conducted by the Ministry of Health.

We would like also to warn the President and politicians against funding the unreformed system because corruption in medicine is going to increase.

We believe that the discussion on reform should be taken to a new level. Do not question its effectiveness for a month after its launch; do not think about whether it is on time. We need to recognize its necessity and provide adequate, at least 10% of GDP, funding. Only under such conditions, we do hope to see results.