Head of WHO Country Office in Ukraine: During the War, the Ukrainian Health Care System Has Proven Its Capacity

In his interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative and Head of WHO Country Office in Ukraine, shared his views on the Ukrainian healthcare system and outlined the main challenges that healthcare faces in wartime.

- How can you characterize changes in healthcare in Ukraine during the month of war? What has changed?

- What has changed, first of all, is that very many people have been forced to relocate. According to the UN, more than 10 million people have become forced migrants: about 6.5 million have become internally displaced persons, and about 4 million refugees have left the territory of Ukraine and gone abroad. This means that people who have migrated to other regions of Ukraine will look for opportunities to receive health services in those regions, which will affect the performance of the healthcare system.

Secondly, we are seeing attacks and strikes on healthcare institutions. WHO monitors this information, checks, verifies, and validates it. As of today, we see that there have been 85 strikes against health care facilities. This is unacceptable. This situation threatens doctors, nurses, and other healthcare personnel. In addition, in such a situation, many people are afraid to visit healthcare facilities.

Third, we observe active combat and we see the focus of healthcare shifting to the treatment of trauma, wounds, burns, fractures, etc. At the same time, we understand that this re-focusing means that care for patients with non-communicable diseases, the continuity of care for patients with TB, HIV, and diabetes has a lower priority. We see a disruption in the continuum of care for tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and other diseases. This means that everything must be done to ensure