Ukraine has lost a total of 100,000 medical workers in just one year
In the conditions of a pandemic, when the state had to mobilize doctors to fight a deadly virus, the Kiev officials have provoked a catastrophic exodus of health professionals through their actions and inaction.
The report “Ukraine 2020-2021: Unfounded Expectations, Unexpected Challenges”, presented by the Razumkov Centre, revealed the scale of the personnel crisis in the country’s health care institutions. Since the beginning of 2020, 66 thousand physicians have left Ukraine.
Some of them have chosen to work in hospitals in neighbouring Poland. According to the local employment agency, about 2,000 doctors and 3,000 nurses have applied to work in Poland. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, Warsaw has simplified the procedure for hiring medics from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Now they only need to have a diploma from the consulate, three years of experience and knowledge of the Polish language. At the same time, they can get a salary of 3.5 thousand dollars.
But the losses of the Ukrainian health care system do not end there. The Razumkov Center report states that over 5 thousand doctors and 34 thousand medical workers chose to quit their jobs.
The crisis, dangerous to national security, began during the rule of oligarch Petro Poroshenko. It was he who empowered Ulyana Suprun, a US citizen, as Minister of Health, who, on the pretext of reform, drove Ukraine’s medicine into disrepair. The coronavirus pandemic and the state’s inability to offer clear guarantees to medical workers have only worsened the situation.
Maxim Stepanov, Minister of Health of Ukraine: “The Ukrainian health care system is in danger of being destroyed. For me, it is not some scare stories. We will not need even a thousand modern hospitals. I believe it is a matter of national security”.