Employees of the traumatology department of Volnovakha Central District Hospital (Donetsk region) received “letters of notification” about dismissal due to staff reductions from the administration of the medical institution in May 2020. According to the management, two surgical departments in Volnovakha were too much. Before that, part of the hospital laboratory was closed. Doctors have already experienced optimization – in May they received lower salaries compared with the previous months.

Yana Tvereza, the regional coordinator of “Active Community” All-Ukrainian Initiative in Volnovakha, has described how citizens are trying to defend the hospital and protect their right to quality medical services.

According to her: “it all started with the closure of the part of the laboratory, and they said that it was only for the period of quarantine and the pecialists would be brought to the district. There is Novotroitske settlement, and the distance between it and the city of Volnovakha is 17 kilometers. This is not very convenient. People began to protest. Letters with the signatures of the residents were sent to the Office of the President, to the Ministry of Health. The Office of the President replied that the letter had been sent to the region. In turn, the region sent a rather formal response regarding the closure of the department: there is a railway connection between the settlements and it will not be difficult for the people to get to the hospital. Although there is no railway connection. They called the reduction the “optimization”. Why am I doing this? First, I live in this place. Second, we are the representatives of the “Active Community”, and when the people ask for help and want to be active citizens, we cannot but meet them,” Yana has indicated.

Doctors’ salary was significantly reduced. The salaries of the specialists of the Central District Hospital in May were less than usual. The Chief Doctor believes this is due to the fact that the National Health Service of Ukraine failed to transfer the money.

“I went to the website, checked the public information. NHSU states that they have transferred all funds in full. Doctors, in fact, received 3,700 hryvnias each. They explained it by the fact that due to the quarantine the doctors worked little (the therapeutic department was closed for the period of quarantine, – ed.) and the hospital did not receive the promised funds from the National Health Service,” the local coordinator of “Active Community” All-Ukrainian Initiative has explained.

In addition, it was recently revealed that the traumatology department of the hospital is being closed. It is fully optimized and the number of nurses and doctors is reduced.

“We engaged the media, applied to the authorities of the region. According to them, 2 traumatology departments is too many for the district. But the question is as follow: this department has recently been renovated. Why do it then, if they knew about the closure? The appeals to the management of the Central District Hospital were posted in social media. In response, they complained about the national reform and said that there is nothing they can do about it,” Yana Tvereza has explained.

It should be noted that earlier, the Head of the hospital department Andrii Khadzhinov stated in the mass media that more than 1,700 patients had been operated and treated in the traumatology department since the beginning of the year. Patients from all over Volnovakha district, as well as from nearby settlements were brought to them. According to him, it is known that out of 29 employees, 8 will remain working on the staff. Part of the medical staff is planned to be transferred to the surgical department.

In turn, the Head of the Department of Health of Donetsk Regional State Administration Volodymyr Kolesnyk believes that  two surgical departments in Volnovakha are too much.

Note. The mission of the “Active Community” is to achieve prosperity through the democratic development of Ukrainian communities. The goal for the year 2025 is to activate and involve at least 1% of citizens in decision-making and promotion of reforms in Ukraine on a systemic basis for the well-being of Ukrainian communities. The initiative was created within the framework of activities of the Republic Institute. We work to boost the conscious activity of citizens.

Author: Head of the Public Affairs Office of “Active Community” All-Ukrainian Initiative Tetiana Kavunenko