The anti-corruption examination found risks in the draft decisions of the City Council regarding the liquidation of maternity homes in Mykolaiv

The non-governmental organization «Institute of Legislative Ideas» identified corruption risks in the draft decisions of the Mykolaiv city council regarding the approval of the transfer acts of maternity hospitals No. 1 and No. 2, which are actually liquidating and joining the city hospitals No. 1 and No. 3, respectively.

This is stated in the conclusions of the anti-corruption examination of the normative legal act of the city council, writes «NikVesti».

As you know, by the decision of the session dated July 31, maternity homes No. 1 and No. 2 were joined to two multidisciplinary hospitals. This necessity was due to the fact that over the last year the number of births in the city has significantly decreased, because of this, the funds that maternity hospitals receive from the National Health Service are not enough to pay salaries in full and basic payments of institutions. For two months, reorganization commissions worked in maternity hospitals, which were engaged in property inventory and staff optimization.

Draft decisions on approving the transfer act and amending the statutes of hospitals, which will include maternity homes, have been published on the city council's website. In addition to the draft decisions and explanatory notes, the conclusions of the anti-corruption examination were also published.

The experts of the public organization note that there are no mechanisms for transparency and openness in management activities in the norms of hospital charters, which are planned to be updated.

Screenshot from the document

«Such a closed situation in itself is a corruption-inducing factor, because in the absence of mechanisms of transparency and openness of activity, the conditions for committing corruption and corruption-related offenses are simplified,» — experts say.

In particular, experts cite a number of factors that contribute to the commission of corruption offenses, including:

• duplication of powers;
• absence or imperfection of the conflict of interest resolution procedure;
• creation of excessive burdens or artificial obstacles for recipients of social security services;
• non-compliance with the principle of transparency and openness;
• absence or shortcomings of selection (competition) procedures for management positions in the relevant law enforcement entity.

Thus, in the conclusion of the examination, the «Institute of Legislative Ideas» declares that the draft decision and statute of institutions in the new edition contains corruption risks and is not recommended for adoption by the city council without additional refinement and consideration of recommendations.

As you know, in connection with the reorganization of Mykolaiv maternity hospitals No. 1 and No. 2, 57 employees of medical institutions will lose their jobs.

It is worth noting that the team of the maternity hospital No. 2 in Mykolaiv considers the decision of the city authorities to actually liquidate and preserve only one specialized medical facility in the city to be erroneous.

The head of the city's health care department, Iryna Shamrai, explaining the need to reorganize medical facilities, stated that over the past 7 years, the number of pregnant women in Mykolaiv has decreased 5 times.

The city authorities plan to keep one maternity hospital in the city for almost half a million residents — No. 3, which is located in the Lisky microdistrict in the Zavodskyy district of Mykolaiv.

We will remind you that in January 2022, a blogger from Mykolaiv spoke about the cost of «free» childbirth in maternity hospital No. 3: 10 thousand hryvnias for a cesarean section, 8 thousand hryvnias for a natural birth. The cost of a regular ward was also mentioned — 580 hryvnias per day, but there is also one for 2,500 hryvnias per day at prices as of the beginning of 2022.

It should be noted that the state also guarantees free childbirth in Ukraine. In December 2021, Minister of Health Viktor Liashko announced that the National Health Service of Ukraine would compensate for one birth 15,101 hryvnias under the medical guarantee program. According to the E-Health system, the Mykolaiv Maternity Hospital No. 3 received 43 million 125 thousand 99 hryvnias under this program in 2021.