310 modern outpatient clinics will be built in rural areas in 15 regions of Ukraine. This is the first pool of projects approved by the Order of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine and planned to implement at the expense of a subvention for the development of rural medicine.

This was announced by Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko.

"We are moving in line with a clear roadmap for the implementation of the initiative of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on the development of quality medicine in rural areas. Outpatient clinics will be built within the framework of a new network of primary care throughout the territory of Ukraine. The new network of primary care was established in accordance with the methodology developed by the Ministry of Regional Development together with the Ministry of Health, and envisages the construction of 505 new outpatient clinics. For the construction purposes we have drafted and approved new technical requirements for outpatient clinics projects with a class of energy efficiency, as well as a list of necessary medical equipment (including telehealth equipment) for primary care facilities. We have also planned the introduction of telehealth care in outpatient clinics", said Hennadii Zubko.

The first project pool includes Volyn, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky and Cherkasy regions.

"We do not wind up. We are working on the criteria for purchasing transport for the primary care sector. Our goal is high-quality, modern, available rural medicine covering the whole territory of Ukraine", the top official said.

It should be noted that at the initiative of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the law designed to promote the development of primary care in rural areas was approved by the Parliament. The implementation of Law 2206 implies not only the introduction of modern approaches to the facilities and medical equipment, but primarily - the latest methods, telemedicine, which can record data, deliver them to secondary level and receive very prompt advice from professional doctors on narrow-focus issues.

The total amount of subventions from the state budget to local budgets for the implementation of measures aimed at developing the healthcare system in rural areas in 2018 makes up UAH 5 billion (UAH 4 billion - the planned amount in 2017 budget, UAH 1 billion – allotted in 2018). The procedure and conditions for the use of the Subvention was approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 6, 2017, No. 983.