After countless deaths due to the ongoing battle of the fate of Ukraine, a new, stable government has to be created in order find a solution. Currently, Ukraine is split in two. On one side, people loyal to the Ukrainian government are fighting to keep their independence. And on the other, Pro-Russian protesters, who are now using violence, are trying to help Russia annex the entirety Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin is currently having his troops occupy Crimea, mainly because it has a 60% Russian population. If the situation continues to escalate as rapidly as it has been, and with no intervention from foreign countries, Ukraine will soon be forced to join Russia again. In order to solve this, Ukraine needs to completely re-think their way of government. One major issue in Ukraine’s government right now is their lack of proper health care, which is extremely important to the Ukrainian people, now more than ever.
Health care in Ukraine has been poor for years, but with the new threat of Russian invasion, any hopes of repairing it have been stopped indefinitely. Ukraine’s government itself has stated that its healthcare is free and accessible to all Ukrainian citizens, but that isn’t the case. Ukraine’s healthcare system is funded almost entirely its general government revenues, which is hardly enough. According to this article from 2011, Ukraine’s Health Minister Oleksandr Anischenko stated that they were planning on completely re-working their current healthcare system by 2014, and there has been hardly any progress. The healthcare system is failing in many different ways, but one major roadblock is that they don’t have nearly enough funding for it.
Another growing issue in their system is that the entire working force of Ukraine’s healthcare is understaffed, underpaid, and many ‘doctors’ haven't even had the proper education required. First, because doctors are so underpaid, they usually will require their patients to pay a separate fee to even be seen. This is especially difficult for all the low-income citizens. Another roadblock for their system, which correlates directly with the funding problem, is that Ukraine is currently doing nothing to improve their problem with understaffed doctors. This is also why many doctors haven't had nearly enough education, because since there aren’t a lot of people becoming doctors, Ukraine has to take whatever and whomever it can get to provide some form of healthcare, no matter how poor.
The problem Ukraine has with doctors is just one of the many pieces that need to be improved, another piece being the poor conditions of the health centres and lack of medical equipment. Although Ukraine has taken steps to try and improve this problem, they seem to of prioritized their issues with Russia over healthcare. With dirty and hardly regulated hospitals, and underpaid staff, someone else needs to step in. In order to solve this problem, outside organizations really need to step in, since it is obvious Ukraine is unable to solve their healthcare crisis alone, especially with the new threat of Russian invasion. Before they can even start on healthcare, the probably with Russia must be solved. The US and other foreign powers must put a lot more pressure on Russia, since they show little signs of stopping the pro-Russian protesters, or even admitting that they're invading Ukraine.
If Russia can get the protesters to stop their violent attacks, then Ukraine should be able to work on their government (with the help of their citizens), and eventually work on their healthcare. If normal people want to help, the only thing they can do is donate. The American Ukrainian Medical Foundation is a good organization to donate to, although they mainly focus on getting doctors in Ukraine more educated. Another organization they can go to that mainly focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine is here. Healthcare in Ukraine is something that is sadly being over-looked, and it needs a lot more awareness before it can be improved. There have been countless deaths due to the healthcare system being so neglected, and there will be countless more as long as the issue with Russia continues.
Health care in Ukraine has been poor for years, but with the new threat of Russian invasion, any hopes of repairing it have been stopped indefinitely. Ukraine’s government itself has stated that its healthcare is free and accessible to all Ukrainian citizens, but that isn’t the case. Ukraine’s healthcare system is funded almost entirely its general government revenues, which is hardly enough. According to this article from 2011, Ukraine’s Health Minister Oleksandr Anischenko stated that they were planning on completely re-working their current healthcare system by 2014, and there has been hardly any progress. The healthcare system is failing in many different ways, but one major roadblock is that they don’t have nearly enough funding for it.
Another growing issue in their system is that the entire working force of Ukraine’s healthcare is understaffed, underpaid, and many ‘doctors’ haven't even had the proper education required. First, because doctors are so underpaid, they usually will require their patients to pay a separate fee to even be seen. This is especially difficult for all the low-income citizens. Another roadblock for their system, which correlates directly with the funding problem, is that Ukraine is currently doing nothing to improve their problem with understaffed doctors. This is also why many doctors haven't had nearly enough education, because since there aren’t a lot of people becoming doctors, Ukraine has to take whatever and whomever it can get to provide some form of healthcare, no matter how poor.
The problem Ukraine has with doctors is just one of the many pieces that need to be improved, another piece being the poor conditions of the health centres and lack of medical equipment. Although Ukraine has taken steps to try and improve this problem, they seem to of prioritized their issues with Russia over healthcare. With dirty and hardly regulated hospitals, and underpaid staff, someone else needs to step in. In order to solve this problem, outside organizations really need to step in, since it is obvious Ukraine is unable to solve their healthcare crisis alone, especially with the new threat of Russian invasion. Before they can even start on healthcare, the probably with Russia must be solved. The US and other foreign powers must put a lot more pressure on Russia, since they show little signs of stopping the pro-Russian protesters, or even admitting that they're invading Ukraine.
If Russia can get the protesters to stop their violent attacks, then Ukraine should be able to work on their government (with the help of their citizens), and eventually work on their healthcare. If normal people want to help, the only thing they can do is donate. The American Ukrainian Medical Foundation is a good organization to donate to, although they mainly focus on getting doctors in Ukraine more educated. Another organization they can go to that mainly focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Ukraine is here. Healthcare in Ukraine is something that is sadly being over-looked, and it needs a lot more awareness before it can be improved. There have been countless deaths due to the healthcare system being so neglected, and there will be countless more as long as the issue with Russia continues.