The approach to the healthcare reform in Ukraine should be change when the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic is over, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“There are a lot of questions about the healthcare reform today. Coronavirus showed what kind of a healthcare reform it is: the hospitals are not ready, there is a lack of beds for patients with infectious diseases and the salaries are very low. We have no medical infrastructure,” he said on the Ukraine 24 TV channel on April 22.
“Everyone told us that Ukraine has face masks in stock, 3,000 artificial lung ventilators, dozens of laboratories. At the beginning of the epidemic we had five non-working laboratories, while today we have 35 and all of them are working. We had less than 1,000 artificial lung ventilators and outdated face masks. When we write ‘the second stage of healthcare reform’ in capital letters on each poster, we should understand that the approach should be completely changed after coronavirus. Only now we have realized that we have nothing but medical workers,” the president said.
Zelensky also said that the supplies of personal protective equipment have been arranged and Ukrainian manufacturers started making artificial lung ventilators.
“We have cargoes with medicines and protective equipment. We have sent and received more than 20 planes. And now we are launching domestic production of artificial lung ventilators,” he said.
