OREANDA-NEWS. January 24, 2011. Chaired by First Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Secretary of the Committee on Economic Reforms Iryna Akimova, a meeting on experimental healthcare reform in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Vinnytsya regions was held.

Participants of the meeting were Minister of Health of Ukraine I. Yemets, First Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine O. Anischenko, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Union of Healthcare Workers V. Koval, representatives of regional administrations, regional councils, regional healthcare departments of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, experts and representatives of international organizations.

The experiment is an important step towards implementing healthcare reform, foreseen by the Program of Economic Reforms for 2010-2014, aimed at improving public health, and ensuring equal and fair access of all members of the society to good quality healthcare services.

Speaking at the meeting, Iryna Akimova said that the experiment in three regions will go on for two years, and on the third year its results will be extended to all other regions of Ukraine.

The First Deputy Chief of Staff reminded that healthcare reform was launched last year and was acclaimed by medical branch workers. "The reform announced by President of Ukraine last year was fully supported by physicians and managers of the healthcare branch," Iryna Akimova said.

She also reminded of President’s position that the reform should follow a clear timetable. "The President has repeatedly stressed the importance of reforms not lasting for years but being done quickly," the Deputy Chief of Staff added.

In addition, Iryna Akimova stressed the importance of transparency of reforms that would allow finding "hot spots" of the healthcare system. "The subject of transparency of the reforms is crucial,” she said.

Participants of the meeting have also discussed interaction of state and local governments in restructuring the network of healthcare facilities, and monitoring and evaluating the results of the experiment.