The Ministry of Health has provided sufficient resource to raise the wages of all medical professionals treating patients with COVID-19. The funding for March has already been transferred to the regions, while a mechanism for raising salaries starting in April will be adopted during the Government meeting this week.

The Minister of Health of Ukraine Maxym Stepanov announced at a daily briefing.

“As we have promised, we have a solution to the issue of salaries for healthcare personnel. Here it is critical to differentiate the increased pay for work in March and for all subsequent months. If we are talking about March, this issue has been resolved to the full extent by the Government and the Ministry of Health. All the funds of the state budget have been transferred to the regions at the account of medical subvention, ” Maxym Stepanov emphasized.

According to the Minister, the Ministry’s specilalists made all the calculations and now it is up to the local authorities and the management of the respective medical institutions.

Meanwhile, Maxym Stepanov emphasized, payment of wages raised to 300% by now will have another mechanism starting in April.

“This resource was envisaged and included in the state budget through amendments adopted last week. The document has already been signed by the President. Funds for additional pay are provided in the COVID-19 Response Fund. All medical professionals working with COVID-19 will receive the money. After all, the protection of medical personnel is our priority,” the Minister accentuated.

He informed that at a forthcoming meeting of the Government it would be decided how the relevant fringe benefits would be accrued. These funds will be transferred to the regions in order to avoid any delays.

The Health Minister expressed his hope that local authorities and municipal healthcare facilities would promptly make appropriate payroll calculations and payments.