OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2011. President Viktor Yanukovych believes the start of healthcare reform in Ukraine is successful, he said while visiting the Cherepashyntsi village family clinic in the Vinnytsya region. The President welcomed the first results of medical reform in the region where a pilot healthcare reform experiment has been launched this year. "It is good that the that the reform has started. Healthcare requires major changes – this area has serious problems that must be solved," he said.

Viktor Yanukovych stressed that thanks to the example of Cherepashyntsi clinic, the effect of reforms can be seen. "In 5 months we have improved the quality of medical services at the primary level. This model is being tested in four regions of Ukraine, including in the Vinnytsya region," he said.

"We will do everything for medical services to be the best possible and that doctors were more approachable to people," he said. Viktor Yanukovych added that he would request local officials and doctors that they explained the purpose of healthcare reform to people. He also said he came to see, how does village healthcare system work, "because the country has the worst situation in the villages.”

The President toured the facility and familiarized himself with the conditions its patients are to be treated in. He also presented the clinic with a medical equipment certificate.

The Vinnytsya region is one of four regions of Ukraine, where a pilot healthcare reform experiment has started and to last for three years. Five months into the experiment, a Center for Primary Medical Care was established in the Kalynivka district to incorporate all the primary healthcare facilities in the district. In January, by a decision of the Cherepashyntsi Village Council, the village’s clinic was transferred to the Center. After all village councils in the districts approved similar decisions, a single system of primary medical aid was created.
 The Cherepashyntsi village clinic provides service to the village’s 1412 inhabitants and is an example of primary medical services system reform. There are 4 daycare beds in the clinic, the practice of "hospital at home" was launched. The clinic’s doctors make home rounds, watch over the health of young children and pregnant women, work with the chronically ill. There is a schedule of specialized doctors from the district center visiting the clinic.