Ministry of Health, UNICEF to strengthen cooperation on hospital energy resilience and healthcare quality

Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko met with UNICEF Representative to Ukraine Anne-Claire Dufay. The sides discussed further cooperation in healthcare, including improving care for mothers and children, expanding immunization and primary healthcare programs, and strengthening the energy resilience of hospitals.

"We are extremely grateful to UNICEF for its consistent support of Ukraine's healthcare system. We are already seeing concrete results of our cooperation: better care for mothers and children, more accessible medical services, and stronger energy resilience in hospitals. Our top priority is to ensure that everyone, regardless of circumstances, can receive quality medical care when they need it. That is why we want to keep developing this partnership, implement practical solutions together, and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine's healthcare system," said Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko.

The meeting covered, among other things, reducing perinatal and neonatal mortality and ensuring continuous medical follow-up for children from birth. To this end, the Ministry of Health is already working on automatically transmitting newborns' medical data from maternity hospitals to primary healthcare facilities. This will make it possible to monitor children in a timely manner after discharge.

With UNICEF's support, a number of measures have already been implemented to improve the quality of care for mothers and children. In particular, 2,752 healthcare workers have been trained in caring for low-birth-weight newborns. The quality of perinatal services under the Medical Guarantees Programme has also been monitored.

In addition, 158 "Spaces of Care" have been established at primary healthcare facilities in 11 regions of Ukraine and in Kyiv. Another 47 such spaces are being renovated. There, families with young children can receive comprehensive support on health, development, and childcare.

Another topic of discussion was preparing healthcare facilities for winter. With UNICEF's support, solar energy systems with batteries and inverters are being installed at 98 healthcare facilities in 14 regions of Ukraine, including frontline areas. This will help ensure uninterrupted medical care during power outages.

The cooperation between the Ministry of Health and UNICEF is systemic and is already delivering practical results. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine thanks UNICEF and its international partners for their consistent support of Ukraine's healthcare system and their joint work on its development.

As a reminder, in October UNICEF delivered 50,000 doses of the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to Ukraine. The vaccine is intended for free immunization of children in accordance with the Preventive Vaccination Schedule. The delivery was made under the Ministry of Health's cooperation with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.