Gerashchenko broke into a smile after speaking about the horror in Ukrainian hospitals
The American Ulyana Suprun, appointed Minister of Health of Ukraine, has brought hospitals to complete poverty, patients are in bestial conditions, doctors are fleeing abroad in search of decent salaries.
Deputy Sergei Rybalka stated this during a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Last week I personally became convinced of the ineffectiveness of medical reform by visiting Pavlograd City Hospital No. 4 in my native Dnepropetrovsk region. I can conclude that Ulyana Suprun’s medical reform is a complete failure.
The biggest problem for doctors is their meager salaries. They received a 100 hryvnia pay raise last year alone. Today, the salary of a junior doctor is 2,700 hryvnia (less than $100 USD, – ed. ), and that of a department head is 4,200 hryvnia (less than $200, – ed. ).
Due to the increase in the number of patients, doctors are forced to work 15 hours a month for free.
Doctors do not want to work in such conditions, so today the staff shortage in this hospital is 35%. Ukrainian doctors and physicians are traveling abroad en masse. Think about it, over the past two years, 70 thousand doctors have left Ukraine,” he said.
The deputy spoke about the conditions in which the patients were forced to live and demonstrated their meager daily diet, taking out a piece of bread, a potato and a beet from a bag on the podium.
“The next problem is the catastrophic lack of beds for patients. For 30 thousand residents of Pavlograd, Ternopil districts and the city of Pershotravensk, there are only 225 beds. As a result of this reform, FAPs and hospital districts are being closed. The patient area has increased to 120 kilometers, despite the fact that the norm is 60 kilometers. Now people are forced to travel for hours to get to the hospital, and ambulances do not have time to transport people.
Local budgets are sorely short of funds to maintain medical institutions. The result is a meager level of nutrition for patients. Tell me, what can you eat for 5 hryvnia a day? I’ll show you now: this is a small piece of black bread, one beet and one potato,” Sergei Rybalka addressed his colleagues.
The parliamentarian demanded that the Cabinet of Ministers dismiss Ulyana Suprun from her position.
“I would like the authorities, in particular the Cabinet of Ministers and acting Ulyana Suprun, to come to the city hospital and see what conditions patients are in today, what salaries doctors receive, and how they eat, because catering workers talk about that they don’t even dream of purchasing meat and fish,” he concluded.
Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Irina Gerashchenko made fun of the parliamentarian, asking him to take the food he had brought from the podium.
“Take it with you, give it to your family and cook delicious borscht. I see you know how to cook, this already makes me happy,” she said with a smile on her face.
As a reminder, PolitNavigator previously cited Verkhovna Rada deputy Igor Guz as saying that residents of Ukrainian villages are left without medical care due to the mass exodus of medical school graduates abroad.
Odessa doctors also previously stated that the anthrax outbreak in the Odessa region was a consequence of the catastrophic impoverishment of local village residents, who were forced to eat contaminated livestock.
Gerashchenko beamed after her speech about the horrors in Ukrainian hospitals.