Society

Ukrainian authorities promise to promptly reform medical and social expert commissions

From 1 January 2025, medical and social expert commissions in Ukraine will cease to operate as separate legal entities. According to Komersant ukrainskyi, this was announced today at a briefing by Health Minister Viktor Lyashko. According to him, the functions of these commissions will be transferred to cluster and supra-cluster hospitals.

“We are doing everything to ensure that by 1 January 2025, the MSECs as separate legal entities will cease to function. (Their) functions will be transferred to cluster and supra-cluster hospitals,” the Health Minister said.

What will be done at the central level

According to the Ministry of Health, rapid changes will be introduced at the central level to optimise the process as soon as possible. The Central Medical and Social Expert Commission of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine will be liquidated, and its functions, including appealing decisions and conducting inspections, will be fully transferred to the Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health in Dnipro, where the Ministry of Health has been creating the necessary material and technical base during 2024.

What will be done at the regional level

At the regional level, regional and inter-district MSECs will be liquidated by the end of the year, and their examination functions will be transferred to cluster and supercluster hospitals of a capable network of medical institutions. The advantages of this solution are that it brings expertise closer to the individual: all the necessary specialists and opportunities for examination will be available in one medical facility, where a barrier-free space has been created. Digitalisation of the examination processes will also be ensured. The expertise will have clear funding mechanisms that will depend on the workload of a particular commission.

Changes at the legislative level

The concept of the announced changes is in line with the provisions of the draft law developed by the Ministry of Health and recently submitted for public discussion. In accordance with the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, the draft law on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine on the introduction of an assessment of a person with a restriction of daily functioning, developed to ensure urgent reform of the system of medical and social expertise in Ukraine, should be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine within a month.

As you know, following the meeting of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine of 22 October 2024 on combating corruption and other offences in the process of establishing disability, the heads of the Central Medical and Social Expert Commission of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health, the Research Institute for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities of Vinnytsia National Medical University named after M. Pirogov, and employees of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine were dismissed.

By the way, the Ministry of Health expresses its readiness to establish working groups together with law enforcement agencies to verify the validity of MSEC decisions, in particular, regarding the determination of disability for officials. If the facts of unreasonable decisions are revealed, the law enforcement agencies will initiate their review and take appropriate measures.

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