Kim hopes that members of the city council will support the reorganisation of hospitals in Mykolaiv

Vitalii Kim is hoping for the support of councillors at the session regarding the reorganisation of hospitals. Archive photo: NikVesti

Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, hopes that city councillors will support the reorganisation of the city’s hospitals.

He announced this on his Telegram channel.

As is known, members of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Health Committee have backed the reorganisation of the city’s hospitals. It is now proposed to merge three medical facilities into City Hospital №4: the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMCH), Hospital №1 and City Children’s Hospital №2. They adopted the relevant decision yesterday, 7 April.

«I would like to thank the city council members and members of the standing committee on health care, who unanimously supported the decision to transfer the third maternity hospital, as well as the reorganisation and creation of a unified hospital network. I hope that at tomorrow’s session, councillors will also support this decision, as it is extremely important for the completion of the comprehensive reform and for future planning and work. Thank you for your joint and effective work,» said Vitalii Kim.

The issue of hospital reorganisation has already been rejected twice by councillors at city council sessions. On 29 May, councillors unanimously removed the issue of merging the city’s medical facilities from the session’s agenda, as it had not been approved by the relevant and other committees.

Following this, on 8 June, councillors again considered the issue of reorganising municipal medical institutions. However, the proposals did not secure the necessary number of votes. As is known, the Mykolaiv Health Department put forward an initiative to reduce the number of hospitals in the city from six to three by merging them.

Iryna Shamrai, Head of the Mykolaiv Health Department, explained that the need to reorganise and merge large hospitals in Mykolaiv this year is due to the requirements of the National Health Service of Ukraine regarding full funding for medical services provided.

However, some councillors spoke out against the merger of hospitals. For instance, Olena Kiseliova, chair of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Committee on Legal Affairs and a councillor from the European Solidarity party, strongly criticised the plans to reorganise the city’s healthcare network.

Meanwhile, Olena Shaposhnikova, a councillor on the Mykolaiv City Council from the Propozytsiia party and a doctor at Family Clinic No. 4, spoke out against the reorganisation of primary healthcare centres. In her view, the merger will not deliver the expected savings, but may instead lead to a loss of funding, as well as patients and doctors.

Anna Nord, chair of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Health Committee, also noted that if decisions were taken to reorganise and merge Mykolaiv’s healthcare facilities, male medical staff would lose their exemption from mobilisation.

The resolution of the issue regarding the merger of hospitals has stalled for the time being. At the session on 8 July, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych noted that he would discuss the reorganisation with the head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, Vitalii Kim, and the city and regional health departments.

On 21 August, members of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Committee on Human Rights, Children, Family, Law and Transparency appealed to the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration to expedite consideration of the issue of establishing a capable network of healthcare facilities.