By KYIV. Dec 12 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Informal payments in medical institutions have decreased over the three years since the launch of the healthcare system reform, but remain high, the press service of the Ministry of Health reported, citing First Deputy Minister Serhiy Dubrov.
According to the USAID Health Reform Support Project study, cited in the press release, patients report a significant reduction in the frequency and average size of informal payments for all priority services compared to 2020, but one in six patients pays informally for childbirth and one in two for stroke paid for medicines.
However, in 2023, only 23% of patients indicated that the reason for informal payments was the need to purchase medications, while in 2020, some 48% of patients said this. Some 3% of patients spoke about directly demanding payments from medical institutions in 2023.
“Patients have the right to free medicine and hospital stay, and doctors and nurses receive wages through the rational distribution of funds by the management of the institution. Demanding funds from a patient is a crime,” Durov recalled.
