Falko stated that the staff reduction of Mykolaiv polyclinics is postponed until 2025

Dmytro Falko and Oleksandr Sienkevych, photo by Inshe.tv

The secretary of the Mykolaiv City Council, Dmytro Falko, said that the reduction in the number of Primary Health Care Centers and the dismissal of their employees will take place as early as next year, 2025.

The head of the city council made such a statement on the air of the communal TV channel on July 11, writes NikVesti.

As you know, Mykolaiv City Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych created a working group that should conduct an audit of the economic efficiency of seven CPMSD. The goal is to determine the expediency of their maintenance and carry out reorganization by reducing their number. As the head of city health, Iryna Shamrai, reported in a comment to NikVesti, seven centers of primary health care in Mykolaiv are planned to be reorganized, apparently on the instructions of the Ministry of Health and the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU). Their number is planned to be reduced to two to four institutions. However, the NHSU stated that they did not give any recommendations for «optimization» of primary health care centers in Mykolaiv.

According to Dmytro Falk, it is the doctors in the outpatient clinics who actually «earn» money for the Primary Care Centers, at the same time, there are more than two «non-earning» administrative staff for one such doctor. And it is they, according to the secretary of the city council, that must be reduced.

«The health care reform of Ukraine is aimed at ensuring that we actually have equal rules of the game for private, state, and communal institutions. Today, we have a primary link — these are actually our family doctors. If you compare it with production. then the family doctor is the unit that directly creates the product. If she manufactures it, the company she works for receives funds for it. In fact, family doctors make money. They should be at the center of this process. Today there is a requirement of the National Health Service regarding the minimum salary of doctors — 23,000. So, salaries, the number of declarations per doctor or in general per institution — all this affects the financial indicators of these centers. Accordingly, for the purpose of optimization, it was proposed as an idea, it was proposed to simply reduce, this is currently happening in many such industries. We understand that the administration is similar everywhere, so we are simply uniting the centers in order to reduce the number of service and administrative personnel,» said Dmytro Falko.

He believes that over time such medical institutions will become financially unsustainable and will require financial subsidies from the budget, and therefore, Dmytro Falko is sure, they must be reduced now.

«In some centers, we have more than two administrative personnel for one doctor. Those who earn are less than those who spend. Accordingly, we simply understand that financial capacity, that over time these institutions will become financially insolvent. Therefore, in order to prevent this, unification was proposed. The idea was approved at the first stage, and now it is in the working group, discussions are underway with various parties of the process, with deputies, officials, doctors, National Health Service,» Dmytro Falko said.

He assured that doctors will not be cut. They will not affect the patients either, he said.

«I can say that it will definitely not affect the number of doctors. That is, doctors will not be laid off, and it will certainly not affect patients, that some patients will «stay behind». I also want to add that most likely this reform will not take place this year, since the campaign to sign new contracts with the National Health Service ends, if I'm not mistaken, on October 30. All documents must be submitted by the end of September, and as we know, all these mergers and transformations take quite a lot of time. That's why I think that it will start already after the signing of contracts with NHSU for next year,» said Dmytro Falko.

Reduction of staff at the Mykolaiv Polyclinic

It became known about the idea to reduce primary medical care centers as early as June 2024. By order of the mayor Oleksandr Sienkovych, a working group was created to audit their economic efficiency.

Deputies Serhii Kartsev, Olena Kiseliova, Olena Kuzmina, Oleksandr Medvedev, Hanna Nord, Hanna Remennikova, Elizaveta Trishchanovych, vice mayor Anatolii Petrov, mayor's adviser Ivan Smirenskyi, head of the city health department Iryna Shamrai, director of the finance department Vira Sviatelyk, acting. Tetyana Dymitrova, Head of the Municipal Property Department of the City Council, Yevhen Yuzvak, Director of the Legal Department.

The other day, in a comment to NikVesti, the head of the city's health care department, Iryna Shamrai, said that they are planning to reorganize seven centers of primary health care in Mykolaiv on the instructions of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

It is planned to reduce them to two or four institutions. According to Iryna Shamrai, this will save the city budget up to 27 million hryvnias per year.

«Currently, there are six outpatient clinics in the center, and there will be 18 outpatient clinics. The second center has eight outpatient clinics, and there will be 21. I want to tell you that this does not affect the quality in any way, because all the funds from the city budget, which are allocated for various needs, are proportionally distributed among patients,» she said.

Later, the mayor of Mykolaiv explained in a video address to the citizens that the cuts will not apply to doctors, administrative staff will be laid off.

«How many people will be laid off, how many will be reduced? These are legal entities, of which we have to make 4 out of 7. The number of dispensaries will increase by one. How many medical workers will be laid off? None. Administrative staff will be reduced. What will it give to the people of Mykolaiv? Saving budget funds on salaries of administrative staff,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

At the same time, Mykolaiv City Council deputy Mykola Kapatsyna believes that the proposal of the health care department to reduce primary health care centers is due to the need to save budget funds.

His colleague, Olena Kiseliova, deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council, elected from the «European Solidarity» party, has the opposite opinion. She urged Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych to abandon the reorganization of seven primary health care centers.

Deputy of the Mykolaiv City Council Artem Iliuk also criticized the idea of reducing the seven centers of primary health care to two or four, which is motivated by the need to save budget funds.

Tetiana Dombrovska, head of the «Servant of the People» faction in the Mykolayiv City Council, does not support the idea of optimization. At the same time, deputy and member of the working group on optimization Serhii Kantor refused to comment. He considers it inappropriate to comment on this situation until the working group has completed its analysis.

And Ivan Smirenskyi, adviser to the Mykolaiv city mayor, supported the optimization of primary health care centers. He stated that the merger or consolidation of a number of institutions into one legal entity is a worldwide practice.