The Project Invites Journalists to Active Participation in Healthcare Reform.

The journalists were informed about the best practice of European trends in secondary healthcare reforming and the possible variants of quality improvement of medical services, which are being developed in Zhytomyr oblast with the support of the EU Project. The press-club participants agreed on the idea that improvement of the medical services quality, which is so anxiously expected by the public, is impossible today without the introduction of modern methods of management and financing, efficient usage of material and technical, as well as HR resources. In particular, the Project experts informed the journalists about the optimization plans for the medical facilities network on the territory of the oblast and about the aim of establishing inter-territorial communal hospital economic unions.

The Team Leader Oxana Abovskaya underlined that in the conditions of the existing administrative system in Ukraine, organizing the provision of medical services to public is the function of local authorities (on the level of oblast, rayon and village) and the presence of political will of their representatives is exactly one of the steps towards the provision of quality medical services.

In the course of the dialogue with the journalists it was several times stressed that in the progress of implementation of SHC reform mass media are expected to take the role of active participants, thoroughly and widely informing the public regarding the essence of the proposed innovations, and thus such meetings with journalists gain particular importance and urgency.

The Head of Organizational, Medical-preventive, Pharmaceutical and Marketing Management Department of Healthcare Department in Zhytomyr Oblast, Valentyna Gryshchuk spoke about the results of cooperation between the Project and the Oblast Healthcare Department, and she pointed out that “today the success of the reform depends on political will and interaction between the stakeholders. Especially important is the mutual understanding, cooperation and mutual trust of the medical staff, authorities, press and public. This, in the end, will result in patient benefit”.

After the closure of the press-club, Oxana Abovskaya, the Team Leader, Volodymyr Rudiy, the National Health Policy and Legal Coordinator, and Volodymyr Golovakov, the Head of Healthcare Commission in Zhytomyr Oblast Rada, took part in the TV-programme “Vashe zdorovya (Your Health)” of Zhytomyr OTRC.