At the Mykolaiv Veterans’ Hospital, the waiting list for joint replacements has doubled — a further 30 prostheses are to be procured

X-ray of knee joints following the fitting of endoprostheses. Photo: Mykolaiv War Veterans’ Hospital

At the Mykolaiv Regional Clinical War Veterans’ Hospital, the number of people registered for free joint replacements has more than doubled over the past year, reaching 424. At the same time, the hospital plans to purchase a further 30 artificial joints for 4.6 million hryvnias.

This is evidenced by procurement data in the Prozorro system and statistics published on the hospital’s official website, according to NikVesti.

The tender was announced on 30 October. The hospital plans to purchase 15 artificial hip joints and 15 artificial knee joints. These are fitted during operations to fully or partially replace a damaged joint with an artificial one. Such operations are known as joint replacement surgery.

The estimated cost of the procurement is 4 million 613 thousand hryvnias. Bids from suppliers will be accepted until 16 November, and the prostheses must be delivered by the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, the number of people on the hospital’s electronic waiting list continues to rise. According to the hospital’s official statistics, 203 people were registered there in October 2025. In January 2026, there were 248; in June, 349; in September, 391; and in October, the figure had risen to 424.

Thus, over the course of a year, the number of registered patients increased by 221, or by almost 109 per cent. However, the published statistics do not specify how many of them are still awaiting surgery.

Against the backdrop of rising patient numbers, stocks of certain types of artificial joints are also dwindling. In particular, in October 2025, the hospital had 18 standard knee prostheses purchased with public funds. By October 2026, however, the stock had fallen to zero.

At the same time, as of October, the hospital still had one specialised knee prosthesis, seven cementless and five cemented total hip replacements.

Throughout the year, the hospital also received new artificial joints. For example, in April, the hospital reported the receipt of 34 endoprostheses of various types. Of these, 10 were knee prostheses and the remaining 24 were hip prostheses. However, the report does not specify under which contracts or with what funds they were supplied.

This is the second procurement of artificial joints by the hospital to have come to light in the last two months. In September, the hospital announced a tender for the purchase of 30 hip endoprostheses for 3.73 million hryvnias.

In Ukraine, joint replacement surgery carried out for medical reasons is available free of charge. As explained by the Ministry of Health, to access this, patients must consult their GP, obtain a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon who will assess the need for surgery, and register on the electronic waiting list.

Patients may choose a hospital regardless of where they live. At the same time, urgent operations, particularly following femoral neck fractures, are carried out outside the general waiting list.

The problem of waiting for joint replacements also exists in other regions of Ukraine. According to Ministry of Health data from 16 September 2026, 35,467 patients were waiting for such operations in Ukraine. The largest number of people required knee replacements — 19,720 — whilst a further 15,642 required hip replacements. At the same time, the Ministry reported that 28,508 joint replacement operations had been recorded in the electronic system. Of these, 21,677 were free of charge for patients.

It should be noted that in Mykolaiv, artificial joints are fitted in five hospitals: the Regional Clinical Hospital, the War Veterans’ Hospital, City Hospitals №3 and №5, and the Emergency Medical Care Hospital.

At the time, Iryna Shamrai, head of the Mykolaiv City Council’s Health Department, reported that a total of 282 patients were awaiting joint replacement surgery at the three city hospitals. Specifically, there were 72 people at Hospital №3, 179 at Hospital №5, and 31 at the Emergency Medical Care Hospital.

Also in October, NikVesti reported that work was being finalised on a prosthetics workshop at the Mykolaiv Veterans’ Hospital. The plan is to manufacture prosthetics there for people who have lost limbs.