The Government, at its meeting on Friday, will consider an issue of appointment to the post of Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine a volunteer and doctor Uliana Suprun. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman at the beginning of the Government’s session on July 22.

"Following rather long search, today we will discuss the appointment to the office of Deputy Minister [of health] a person, who has a good reputation, whom we would like to see among the leaders of a medical reform, she is a Ukrainian girl Uliana Suprun, who has Ukrainian origin, but a little while ago had been an American national", said Volodymyr Groysman.

"A volunteer, a great doctor, she understands healthcare matters. I believe that with such people we will be able to make a real healthcare reform", said the Prime Minister, describing the candidacy of Deputy Minister of Health.

Volodymyr Groysman stressed that the health system is among key priorities for the Government. He reminded initial decisions taken by the Cabinet of Ministers in this field. In particular, a resolution to demonopolize the drug market in Ukraine was adopted, thereby affording to reduce the cost of medicines and improve their quality.

It is also crucial to build a system of reference pricing to curb any unfair overcharging for medicines, said the Prime Minister.

"The law on medicines, reference pricing will enable to introduce fair prices for medicines in Ukraine. A fair reimbursement system, when chronic patients receive the medication for which the state compensates, instead of purchasing them giving way for corruption. And for every person who needs such drugs the state will refund, again a targeted assistance”, he said.

The Prime Minister highlighted that month there would be summoned a meeting of the Government dedicated to the health care reform.

According to him, in Ukraine medicine has for years remained far from public interests. Previous attempts to reform the industry lacked any systemic vision and "were aimed at the destruction of the health system". He gave an example of the introduction of a pilot project in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Vinnytsia regions and in Kyiv in 2011, which triggered the elimination of the paediatric service.

Volodymyr Groysman noted that at the present stage both experts and the Ministry have a lot of solutions to retrofit the healthcare domain.

"Our objective is to ensure that in synergy peers, the Parliament, the Committee, the Ministry, Government officials approve a policy to introduce the health reform and advance in this direction to get it into practice. Healthcare sector can’t wait any longer," he summed up.