Despite the NHSU's declared plan to prepare medical facilities for war, the latter did not even receive funds to purchase supplies of medicines.
The National Health Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health and the entire Ukrainian health care system as a whole were not ready for war. Given the specific situation, hospital managers were forced to change processes and make quick decisions at their own discretion, and in the event of an escalation of hostilities, each head of the medical institution made an individual decision – and the evacuation of medical staff and patients, and further hospital work. Alla Kotlyar's materials “Hospitals on the line of contact: the first months of work”.
In particular, the construction of hospital basements and shelters there began only in the first days of the large-scale invasion. And, as a rule, these were ordinary basements, which in case of dropping heavy bombs will not save.
Also in the first days of the full-scale war, medical institutions throughout the country faced problems with the supply or shortage of medicines and medical devices. Especially those purchased in regions where there was active hostilities.
“The necessary stocks of medicines were mostly not formed by hospitals. In fairness, some hospitals did not have the opportunity to form them. While everyone was waiting for a full-scale war to break out, the NSSU signed agreements for 2022 in February. Payments for January are expected to begin in February and end in April. That is, the money for medicines that hospitals had to provide before the war came to some hospitals after it started, ”the author emphasizes.
The problem was even worse in the hospitals on the line of contact, and every manager decided it in her own way.
The head of the Kharkiv Regional Perinatal Center Iryna Kondratova said that in the first days of the war she bought everything she could for cash in Kharkiv pharmacies and at the regional pharmacy warehouse.
“I understood that we had to wait for humanitarian supplies, which is what happened. Our patients had no problems with medication. Everything that I could not buy for budget funds according to the National List, I bought not for budget funds. That's why it appeared, “Kondratova said.
Instead, Serhiy Solomenko, director of the Makariv Center for Primary Health Care in the Kyiv region,says that in the first months of the war, the medical facility quickly ran out of bandages for primary care and injectable painkillers.
population of drugs
“Yes, in the Makariv region, hostilities began on February 26. A week later, no pharmacy was operational. Some were damaged. The drugs were delivered from there to FAPs and outpatient clinics so that they would not be stolen, and then used for their intended purpose. The remaining people ran out of vital drugs. We tried to either evacuate these people or find medicine, “Serhiy Solomenko said.
Currently, almost the entire pharmacy network in the Makariv region has been destroyed. Of the more than 26 pharmacies, four were operating before the war, only two of them under the “Affordable Medicines” program. was.
“When the pharmacies closed and ran away, in one of them I was forced to take insulin for 360 thousand hryvnias under personal responsibility, having agreed with the owner. I understood that there would be no alternative in the near future. We lasted for about a month until the state machine spun and found insulins from other places, “he said. and form stocks so that in case of repeated logistical problems or attacks on pharmacological warehouses, patients can be provided with all necessary medicines, ”writes Alla Kotlyar.
Nevertheless, there is abuse on the part of doctors. Sometimes the heads of medical institutions order drugs with unproven effectiveness or submit the same lists in several places.
The problem with the logistics of medicines in the occupied territories also remains relevant, as Russian troops interfere with humanitarian aid.
Read more materials Alla Kotlyar at the link.
