A hospital is suspected of overpaying more than ₴2.6 million for equipment in Kherson

Construction of an underground hospital in Kherson. Photo: Kherson RMA.

Luchanskyi Kherson City Clinical Hospital purchased medical equipment from a company suspected of overcharging.

This was reported by the local publication MOST.

All five procurements were carried out without the use of an electronic system, in accordance with the order of the head of the Kherson RMA Oleksandr Prokudin №509 «On the implementation of the decisions of the Defense Council of the Kherson region» dated September 5. Contracts were signed with Medservicegroup LLC from Kyiv. According to the contracts, the company must deliver a batch of equipment for the installation of an underground operating unit with a total cost of over 22.5 million hryvnias.

According to data from the YouControl business analytics system, the owners of Medservicegroup LLC are Andrii Kolomoiets and Andrii Zaberezhnyi.

It is noted that Andrii Zaberezhnyi was previously a co-founder of companies from the Emansys group, which is engaged in the wholesale trade of pharmaceutical goods. In addition, in 2018, Andrii Zaberezhnyi was found guilty under Part 1 of Article 364-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (abuse of authority by an official of a legal entity of private law regardless of the organizational and legal form) and was fined 6,800 thousand hryvnias.

Also, according to the publication, prices for equipment are inflated. All equipment is purchased with a subvention from the state budget.

In particular, the contract states that the hospital will buy three suction cups «9E-A» for 20 thousand hryvnias each. In January of last year, the same equipment was purchased by the Center for Primary Health Care of the Chortkiv City Council. At that time, doctors from Ternopil Oblast paid 5,000 hryvnias for one suction device. That is, Kherson medics paid three times more for similar equipment.

Equipment prices. Photo: MOST

The contractor sells the defibrillator «PRIMEDIC DefiMonitor XD» for the Kherson hospital for 482 thousand hryvnias per piece, and last year the City Clinical Hospital No. 11 in Odesa bought a similar one for 95 thousand cheaper.

In addition, the Kherson hospital buys sixteen M1000 patient monitors from Medservicegroup for 101,000 hryvnias each, while similar equipment costs 39,000 hryvnias per request on the Internet (without delivery). Or ten syringe pumps «MR-30» are bought for 82 thousand hryvnias each, although the same model in the online store of medical equipment costs 46 thousand hryvnias (without delivery).

Equipment prices. Photo: MOST

The contractor sells the VG70 ventilator for 1.6 million hryvnias per unit. The hospital ordered three of these. After analyzing prices on the Internet, MOST learned that such devices currently cost an average of 1.05 million hryvnias per piece (without delivery).

The publication indicates that the hospital could have overpaid for equipment by more than 2.6 million hryvnias.

We will remind that four projects of «hospitals under the ground» are being implemented in Kherson. Currently, a tender has already been held for the construction of the surgical department, which will also be located in the shelter.

It will be equipped on the basis of the city hospital named after Luchanskyi. It should be noted that works on the object will be performed by «ALSVIT PLUS» LLC from the city of Kyiv. The warehouse with the surgical unit equipped in it was supposed to be completed by September 1, 2024.

We will also remind you that in August of this year, the State Bureau of Investigation detained the director of the Department for Civil Protection and Defense Work of the Kherson Regional State Administration, who purchased poor-quality clothing for military personnel. With this, he caused losses to the state of more than 21 million hryvnias.