«Threat to life and health» — the Pivdennoukrainsk City Council is asking the authorities not to close maternity wards in local communities

The South Ukrainian City Council has appealed to the country’s leadership to preserve maternity wards. Photo: City Council

Councillors from the South Ukrainian City Council have appealed to the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Minister of Health of Ukraine and the Head of the National Health Service. They are asking for a review of the terms of the healthcare reform and for maternity wards in local communities to be preserved. The councillors noted that closing such wards during the war poses risks to residents.

The Pivdennoukrainsk City Council adopted this decision at its session on 10 September, according to NikVesti.

Councillor Antonina Martynko («European Solidarity») reminded councillors that the maternity and paediatric wards at the hospital in Pivdennoukrainsk had recently been on the verge of closure.

«One of the reasons cited by the chief medical officer is that we do not have a sufficient number of births, and next year the question will arise as to whether we will have this package (from the National Health Service of Ukraine, — note) at all,” “As of today, we have apparently reached the target for the half-year, but the number of births is currently falling,» the MP noted.

She proposed that councillors support an appeal to the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers and the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) to ensure that maternity wards in local communities are not closed. Councillors discussed a similar appeal at the July session but did not support it.

The Pivdenno-Ukrainian City Council has appealed to the country’s leadership to preserve maternity wards. Photo: City Council

The Pivdennoukrainsk City Council has appealed to the country’s leadership to preserve maternity wards. Photo: City Council

The councillor therefore requested once again that the matter be reconsidered. In their appeal, the councillors emphasised that the new criteria for concluding contracts with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) had raised concerns regarding the closure of maternity wards and funding.

«The closure of maternity wards does not merely mean the cessation of obstetric care. It poses a real threat to the lives and health of women and newborns, who will be forced to travel tens of kilometres to the nearest maternity ward. I would like to point out that the nearest one for us is in Voznesensk. Given the martial law, air raid alerts, destruction of infrastructure and transport restrictions, this could lead to irreparable consequences,» read Antonina Martynko from the appeal.

The appeal proposes revising the criteria for concluding contracts with the National Health Service. In doing so, consideration should be given not only to the number of births, but also to access to medical care, distance from other maternity wards, the security situation and other factors.

«We believe it is necessary to review the approach to funding healthcare services and ensuring the stable operation of hospitals, in particular by revising the financial funding of healthcare service packages in line with their actual cost. The application of flexible quantitative criteria for concluding contracts with the National Health Service of Ukraine, annual indexation of tariffs, and the application of adjustment factors for healthcare facilities in small communities,» the councillor noted.

The Pivdennoukrainsk City Council is calling for measures to ensure that maternity wards in large communities can continue to operate, regardless of the number of births, and for amendments to the medical guarantees programme that take into account the specific circumstances of communities with small populations.

On this occasion, 23 councillors supported the appeal.

Maternity ward on the verge of closure

It should be recalled that at the Pivdennoukrainsk City General Hospital, Chief Medical Officer Serhii Lupov revoked his order to downsize the maternity and paediatric wards.

Although it had previously been planned in Pivdennoukrainsk to downsize the maternity and paediatric wards from September onwards due to the medical facility’s financial difficulties.

After the order was shared on social media, the hospital’s director, Serhii Lupov, commented on the situation himself. He stated that the decision was not linked to the administration’s desire to cut back on medical care, but to the consequences of healthcare reform, the demographic situation and the requirements of the National Health Service of Ukraine.

However, hospital director Serhii Lupov refused to take part in the work of a specially formed group set up to find ways out of the crisis at the hospital.

Furthermore, the hospital is requesting that 8.6 million hryvnias in financial aid, which it received from the local community on a repayable basis, be written off.