The Mykolaiv City Council had to adjourn its session to secure the votes needed for a final decision on the merger of the hospitals
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- Alina KvitkoReporter
city council secretary, Dmytro Falko, during the meeting. Archive photo NikVestiMykolaiv councillors were unable to agree on the changes regarding the merger of four hospitals at the first attempt. They were one vote short, so the session had to be adjourned. After the break, Oleksandr Sienkevych rejoined the meeting, and the decision was finally passed.
This took place on 29 October during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council, according to NikVesti.
The merger involves City Hospital №1, the Emergency Medical Care Hospital and Children’s Hospital №2 being merged with City Hospital №4. It is the fourth hospital to which the other three medical facilities are being merged.
As Tetiana Dmytrova, deputy head of the municipal property department, explained, the hospitals have not yet completed the merger due to an audit by the tax authorities, which is due to end in November.
At the same time, Hospital №4 was required to submit documents by 30 October to obtain a medical licence. Therefore, councillors had to urgently amend its articles of association.
In particular, the documents change the title of «director» to «chief executive». They also clarify details regarding the hospital’s assets, as the legal formalities for the merger with the other institutions are still ongoing.
«We are changing the title from «director» to «chief executive». That is the first change. The second change concerns the section on the sources of the organisation’s assets and funding; we are removing the assets that will be transferred to it following the dissolution, and retaining only those assets assigned to it under the right of usufruct,» explained Tetiana Dmytrova.
According to her, the hospital is already operating with the assets transferred to it, so these changes will not affect its operations. However, without the necessary documents, there may be problems obtaining a medical licence.
City Council Secretary Dmytro Falko also urged councillors to support the decision, as the continued funding of the medical facility by the National Health Service of Ukraine depends on it.
«If you have been listening carefully to the speaker, we actually have until tomorrow to adopt these changes so that our reorganised municipal enterprises can receive the appropriate funding from the National Health Service of Ukraine,» said Dmytro Falko.
However, problems arose during the vote. Some councillors were unable to vote due to technical difficulties, and the number of participants in the online meeting had fallen. Dmytro Falco asked for the vote to be repeated several times, and then suggested checking how many councillors remained at the meeting.
«I can see that we are losing our quorum. Let’s hold a test vote to check how many councillors are currently present,» he said.
After checking, it transpired that 30 MPs remained at the sitting. Consequently, Dmytro Falko called a recess and asked the leaders of the parliamentary factions and groups to contact their colleagues who had stopped participating in the sitting.
«I would ask the leaders of the parliamentary groups and factions to get in touch with their colleagues to find out who is experiencing technical difficulties. We will then try to reconvene at 14:30,» said the City Council secretary.
After the adjournment, the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, rejoined the meeting. He reported that during the previous vote, the councillors had fallen just one vote short of passing the resolution.
«Just before the break, there was a negative vote on our draft resolution concerning the merger of hospitals, that is, the completion of the process of merging our hospitals. I would therefore like to put the question of annulling the vote to a vote,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.
Initially, the councillors annulled the results of the previous vote by 30 votes to 0. They then reconsidered the amendments to the charter of Hospital №4. This time, the resolution was supported by 31 councillors.
At the end of the session, the mayor explained once again that the decisions taken regarding the hospitals were important for completing the reorganisation and paying salaries to medical staff.
«Today, these issues did not concern, as we like to say, some self-serving motives. They concerned the salaries of medical staff, ordinary people who needed the reorganisation process to be completed so they could receive their wages,» emphasised the mayor.
What is known about the merger of Mykolaiv’s hospitals
As a reminder, in April 2026, members of the Mykolaiv City Council supported the merger of four hospitals. It was decided to merge the Emergency Medical Care Hospital, City Hospital №1 and Children’s Hospital №2 with City Hospital №4.
At the time, councillor Olena Kiseliova explained that the merger of the hospitals was primarily a legal change, which should not lead to the closure of medical facilities or staff redundancies. It was expected that, following the reorganisation, the hospital would be able to receive more funding from the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU).
Back in early April, during discussions on the reform, the head of the Emergency Medical Care Hospital (EMCH), Oleksandr Demianov, explained that the facility was not receiving sufficient funding due to its lack of «cluster hospital» status. According to him, the hospital could receive more money for the same volume of medical services.
In September, NikVesti reported on complaints from staff at municipal hospitals regarding salary issues following the merger. Medical staff reported delays in payments, small advances and a shortage of essential supplies. At the time, the mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych, instructed the health department to investigate the situation.
Subsequently, on 21 September, it emerged that the merger of the four hospitals was being delayed. Officials explained at the time that, legally, the reorganisation must be completed by the end of the year; otherwise, problems could arise with the institution’s future funding and staff salaries.
