Support for the training of health workers, revitalization of the health service and the sector industry in Ukraine, support for rehabilitation assistance, development of telemedicine and mental health services, cooperation in scientific research. These are some of the themes at the center of thebilateral meeting which took place this morning, 4 August, by videoconference between the Minister of Health, Horace Schillaci, and the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko.
“We have laid the foundations for starting a cooperation that can help Ukraine to rebuild its health service – explains Minister Schillaci – Italy is at the forefront of assistance and care and we make our best practices available also in the field of safety of care and patients. Just as we are available to give support to develop the diffusion of telemedicine and enhance the training of Ukrainian health workers also with on-site activities”.
During the meeting, an overview was also made on the project, coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Unbroken, Superhumans and Galychyna Centers and other public structures in the Lviv area, for the care of military and civilian war wounded. “The war has seriously compromised access to the Ukrainian health service and with serious consequences for the assistance and treatment of war sick and wounded – added the minister. With this initiative, through our centers of excellence, we are giving concrete help to Ukrainian doctors and rehabilitation facilities to enhance prosthetic assistance and care for the injured. In recent days, one of our delegations, together with the Red Cross and Inail, has been in Ukraine where they met managers and health workers of the Ukrainian health service and visited the hospitals and prosthetic assistance centers to define the operating methods of the project”.
The delegation went to Lviv for a series of visits to the Superhumans, Unbroken and Galychyna treatment and rehabilitation facilities, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Italian Embassy in Kiev and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS). During their stay in Ukraine, the delegation met the Governor of the Lviv Region, representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, directors, doctors and patients of the structures involved in the project which developed within the framework of Italy’s strong commitment to reconstruction of Ukraine after the visit of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloniin February 2023.
Italy will offer its contribution in the field of prosthetic and rehabilitation interventions through a partnerships of centers of excellence such as the INAIL Prosthetic Center, the Italian Red Cross, the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute of Bologna, the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital and the Santa Lucia Foundation. The project has the support of MAECI and in particular of the Task Force for Reconstruction and Resilience of Ukraine and of Development Cooperation together with AICS.