The doctors of the infectious disease hospital in Mykolaiv ask Kim for help with the payment of the salary for January, without which they were left

The doctors of the regional center for the treatment of infectious diseases are asking the head of Mykolayiv RMA Vitalii Kim to help with the issue of payment of wages for January, without which they were left.

The relevant appeal of the employees of the medical institution to the head of the RMA is at the disposal of the editorial office of NikVesti.

«Today, the administration is not able to pay the salaries of the staff for January 2024, not to mention the purchase of medical drugs and medical products. The clarifications regarding the situation were the same: there is no money and there will not be any in the near future,» says the group's appeal.

The doctors point out that the funding of the NHSU, that is, the conclusion of contracts under the medical guarantee program, does not cover all the costs of the institution, and therefore «disorganizes and makes impossible the coordinated, full-fledged work of a strategic facility in the region».

They believe that the «current critical situation» was caused by the activities of the institution's current management.

«There are no priorities in the direction of the development of the medical institution. 3 of our parties have repeatedly voiced proposals to improve the work of the medical institution, conclude new contracts for the provision of medical services with the National Health Service, and other things, but all this has been nullified,» they appeal to the head of the RMA.

We will remind, the doctors of the Mykolaiv Regional Center for the Treatment of Infectious Diseases were left without wages for January.

Prior to that, the Mykolaiv Regional Council planned to «write off» a new operating table worth 76,000 hryvnias from the balance sheet of the infectious disease hospital, but after the publication of NikVesti, the Regional Council removed this issue from consideration of the session.

Inadequate condition of hospitals

We will remind that after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the condition of the wards in the Mykolaiv Regional Children's Hospital, they started repairing the surgical department and installed air conditioners in eight wards.

After this incident, the head of Mykolayiv RMA Vitalii Kim drew attention to the low speed of work of the temporary commission of the regional council on the inspection of medical institutions. He also called on residents of Mykolaiv to send complaints and suggestions regarding changes in the medical system to e-mail, so that these appeals will be considered by the relevant group. After anonymous complaints, Vitalii Kim announced the dismissal of the chief doctors of the medical facilities if he became convinced of their incompetence.

Vitaliii Kim also appointed Anton Tabunshchyk, first deputy chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, to be responsible for correcting deficiencies in hospitals complained about by Mykolaiv residents.

Corruption in hospitals

For the second time, the head of RMA changed this situation a month later and once again announced personnel changes. The reason for this was a different situation in the medical field of the region: the law enforcement officers exposed a large-scale scheme of making money on evasions in the Mykolaiv regional mental hospital.

After that, the court ordered a preventive measure against the policeman who was responsible for searching for evaders. However, the suspicion and the selection of a preventive measure have not yet been served on the doctors who participated in the scheme of illegal earnings, in particular on the chief doctor Viktor Taran.

Reacting to this situation, the head of the Mykolayiv RMA for the medical field, Yurii Hranaturov, said that the exposed scheme in the regional mental health center is an isolated case in the medical field of the region. He believes that the RMA health care department is not responsible for the activities of the chief physician.

At the same time, Yurii Hranaturov announced that the SBI will conduct an additional inspection at the regional mental health center to find out whether other doctors are involved in the corrupt scheme of making money on evasion.

Later it became known that the acting director of the Mykolaiv Regional Center for Mental Health, Viktor Taran, who, according to the SBI, organized the scheme for the production of certificates for evaders, will remain in his post.

Reduction of doctors

However, these two cases are not the only ones in the medical field of Mykolaiv Oblast. As early as March 31, 2023, the editorial office of NikVesti received and published a copy of the order of the chief doctor of the emergency medical hospital, Oleksandr Demianov, on the reduction of the number of employees. According to him, this decision is due to underfunding: this year the hospital received only 91 million hryvnias from the National Health Service, while last year it received 128 million hryvnias.

In response to this publication, officials began to declare en masse that this decision will not affect working doctors, as it only applies to vacancies. At the same time, the health care department assured that the reduction will not affect the quality of service, and the military governor explained this by reforms in medicine.

However, NikVesti conducted its own investigation and found out that such assurances turned out to be false. It turned out that the hospital staff faced a choice: reduce the number of doctors or reduce wages. Thus, the medical staff of the hospital, which treated severely wounded people around the clock in the first months of the war, had to agree to a 25% cut in wages. This reduction creates a number of problems, in particular, 6 neurosurgeons out of 12 are left to work in neurosurgery. At the same time, not all of them have the right to operate independently.

However, in April it became known that the orders for the transfer of surgeons to 0.75 rates were canceled in the Mykolaiv Emergency Hospital.