The electronic governance program contributes to the reform in the sphere of healthcare system, suggesting in the nearest future “money follow the patient” principle based on the algorithm of ProZorro e-procurement.
The initiative group working on the implementation of e-governance in healthcare signs the Second Memorandum of the establishment of the “E-Health” system – the e-governance in healthcare. This was stated by the participants of the initiative at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
“This document shows the specific product which is supposed to be created for starting the healthcare system reform, and that the specific time limits of its implementation,” noted Pavlo Kovtoniuk, Deputy Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine. “We are creating this product so that the money could follow the patient and we could have possibility to monitor effectiveness of expenditures,” added Yuriy Bugay, coordinator of public initiative for introducing e-technologies in healthcare.
Currently, almost 120 participants, including experts, members of civil society organizations and IT professionals have joined the public initiative. The First Memorandum of launching the initiative was signed a month ago. It specifies the principles and goals of activities. It was also agreed to specify the stages of development and technical requirements for the first product within a month. “I am very grateful to the group who has managed to develop this document only within a month. We plan to start the reform with “E-Health”, because we realize that any compromise between the online and paper formats results in victory of the latter,” added Pavlo Kovtoniuk.
Dr. Ulana Suprun, acting Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine, stated that the ministry welcomes the signing of the Second Memorandum. “The Ministry of Healthcare supports the cooperation with the public and active society that takes responsibility to develop changes in the healthcare system. Creation of electronic services in the healthcare system is a breakthrough for Ukraine and approach to the standards of the developed western countries,” stated the Acting Minister of Healthcare of Ukraine. “E- Health system is the ‘big sister’ of ProZorro, but much more complicated. We would like the system to work so well that the rest of the world would study it, much as they study ProZorro,” added Ulana Suprun.
E-Health will contribute significantly to the reform of primary care and to transition to a new funding system whereby money “follows” the patient. The system will allow the use of registers of patients, doctors and services actually rendered. It will make access to health services more convenient for patients and help establish contact between doctors, patients and medical institutions. The government and civil society will be able to monitor better where, for what purpose and how effectively the money is spent. “The effective monitoring can be ensured only with electronic services. Most of the corruption schemes are explained by a human factor. With the availability of electronic system of provision, financing and quality control of services it will depend less on a human factor,” noted Ulana Suprun.
Dmytro Shymkiv, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, noted that the E-Health system in Ukraine will be an attempt to combine the best practices of private clinics and practices of those countries where e-governance in healthcare works well. “This will enable us to administer healthcare expenditures more efficiently, and will significantly accelerate the healthcare reform at the local level,” he noted. “An important element is the fact that now the Ukrainian IT companies that often work for foreign E-Health systems will create the Ukrainian system. ProZorro is a perfect example of how to create a system that is unique in the world and receives one award after another,” added Dmytro Shymkiv.
“It is important that this new healthcare system should be the maximum transparent and open for all, and that anti-corruption protections should be embedded in it from the very beginning,” noted Andriy Marusov, head of Transparency International Ukraine. According to him, an important point is that this initiative brings together a wide range of participants through dialogue and coordination of positions of all stakeholders because it helps build trust between business, civil society and authorities.
“The State Agency for E-Governance in Ukraine will fully support initiatives for the development of E-Health and its further integration into the E-government,” stated Andriy Piskun, advisor to the head of the State Agency for E-Governance in Ukraine. He said that e-government speeds up processes, increases efficiency and enables better analysis and prediction of processes to be made. That is why it is definitely an advantageous step.
Dmytro Sherembey, chairman of the Coordination Council of all-Ukrainian Network of People with HIV, expressed hope that the transparency ensured by the transition to e-government in healthcare will help put an end to many “schemes” and practices of reselling the drugs purchased for the budget funds. “We, as patients’ organization uniting more than 36 foundations in Ukraine will fully support the implementation of this system. When the system starts to work, funds will be spared and lives will be saved. Besides, there will be fewer mistakes and more opportunities,” he stated.
