Mykolaiv City Council supported the medical programme, but with amendments to maternity hospital №3

Deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council supported the city programme for the development and support of municipal healthcare facilities and the provision of medical services beyond the scope of state guarantees provided for in the programme, but with the exception of capital expenditures for maternity hospital №3.

The decision was made during a session on Thursday, 11 December, according to NikVesti.

The councillors had no comments on the content of the programme, but the main topic of discussion was the future of maternity hospital №3, which the city authorities plan to transfer from the municipal property of Mykolaiv to the property of the region.

Councillor Hanna Nord proposed to exclude funding for capital expenditures for the institution, leaving only current expenditures. Instead, Iryna Shamrai, head of Mykolaiv's healthcare department, reminded that during a meeting with the staff, doctors asked not to remove the institution from the city network until it was officially transferred to the regional jurisdiction.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych proposed to support the programme with an amendment: to make changes within five days and exclude capital expenditures for maternity hospital №3.

Vitalii Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, stressed that the transfer of the maternity hospital is necessary to launch the process of additional funding from the state budget and create a single modern medical network in the region.

«"We held a meeting with the staff, discussed all the fears and agreed on our positions. There is a commitment from the regional council. This decision needs to be made to start the process and get the opportunity to finance the transfer from the state budget. The creation of a single network will allow us to invest in the entire healthcare system of the region, including Mykolaiv», said Vitalii Kim.

In his turn, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych emphasised that the city council members would decide the fate of the maternity hospital.

«"I would like to remind you that maternity hospital №3 was already transferred to the ownership of the region, and its fate was negative, so the facility was returned to the city. We agreed that it should become the basis for the creation of a large perinatal centre, which is currently absent in the region,» said the mayor.

As a result, the deputies supported the programme for the development of medical facilities with the proposed changes.

As a reminder, doctors at Mykolaiv Maternity Hospital №3 have not yet received their November salaries.

Healthcare reform is being discussed in Mykolaiv: what is known

Recently, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, and the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, discussed what a capable network of healthcare facilities should look like. The meeting addressed the issue of merging hospitals and transferring maternity hospital №3 to the regional municipal property.

According to Iryna Shamrai, Head of the Mykolaiv Health Department, the meeting took place on 23 October. In addition to the heads of the region and the city, the meeting was attended by specialised deputies and heads of health departments. It was agreed that a capable hospital network would have three cluster institutions — hospitals №3, №4, №5.

• Hospital №5 (director Olena Terentieva), located in Korabelnyi district, is not planned to be reformed.
• City hospital №4 (director Larysa Derhunova) is to be merged with hospital №1 (director Mariia Hrachova, city council member from the party «Proposal») and the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMC) (director Oleksandr Demianov).
• The city children's hospital №2 (director Yurii Diachuk) is to be merged with hospital №3 (Dubky) (director Liubov Savchuk).

However, maternity hospital №3 (director Oleh Ishchenko) in the Namyv district, which was previously supposed to be merged with hospital №3, is now to be transferred from Mykolaiv city ownership to regional communal ownership.

Hanna Nord, the head of the healthcare commission of the Mykolaiv City Council, had many questions about the transfer of maternity hospital №3. She noted that the programme for the development and support of municipal institutions included 19 million hryvnias for maternity hospital №3. But why should the funds be allocated if it will be transferred to regional ownership?

In turn, Iryna Shamrai, head of Mykolaiv's healthcare department, assured that there would be no problems.

Later, it became known that maternity hospital №3 in the Namyv neighbourhood was to be merged with the Mykolaiv Regional Clinical Hospital due to a decline in the birth rate in the region.

As it is known, the issue of reorganising hospitals has already been twice rejected by the deputies at the city council sessions. On 29 May, the deputies unanimously withdrew the issue of merging the city's medical institutions from the session's consideration, as it had not passed the relevant and other commissions.

After that, on 8 June, the deputies again considered the issue of reorganising municipal healthcare facilities. However, the decision did not receive the required number of votes.