In Ukraine, 751 medical institutions provide palliative care in a hospital setting, and another 1,210 medical service providers provide mobile palliative care.
The Ministry of Health reports this, Ukrinform reports.
“As of 2024, general palliative care is provided within the framework of the SGP package “Primary Health Care”, and specialized — within the framework of the packages “Inpatient palliative care for adults and children” and “Mobile palliative care for adults and children.” In 2024, 751 medical institutions were contracted to provide specialized palliative care in a hospital, and for mobile palliative care — 1,210 providers,” the report says.
As noted by the Ministry of Health, palliative care, designed to alleviate the condition of people who are faced with a serious or incurable disease, is included in the Medical Guarantee Program and is free of charge for the patient. The National Health Service of Ukraine (NSHU) pays for the provision of inpatient and mobile palliative care — at the patient's location.
At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Health improved approaches to providing palliative care to make it better, more accessible and unified.
Thus, palliative care is divided into general, provided, in particular, by a family doctor, and specialized, which is provided by a multidisciplinary team of a medical institution both in an inpatient setting and at the place of residence/location of the palliative patient. If necessary, the family doctor can involve a multidisciplinary team for consultations and adjustments/creation of a palliative care plan for the patient. The multidisciplinary team involves medical specialists and specialists from various specialties: social workers, social workers, psychologists, volunteers, lawyers, clergy, etc. Multidisciplinary team specialists ensure the provision of specialized palliative care to the patient and his family members and other caregivers.
You can find a medical institution that has an agreement with the NHSU on the NHSU website in the “E-data” section; on the dashboard “Concluded agreements on medical care of the population under the medical guarantee program.”
Also, information about medical institutions providing palliative care can be obtained by calling NSZU 16-77.
As reported Ukrinform, the Medical Guarantee Program for 2024 began to operate on January 1, its budget is more than 159 billion hryvnia, of which 5.2 billion hryvnia are allocated for reimbursement of medicines.