Event highlights
12 September 2024
WHO Barcelona Course on Health Financing contributes to the recovery, resilience, and reform of the health system in Ukraine amidst the war
The health needs of people in Ukraine have significantly changed after 2.5 years of war, posing a challenge to the health financing system to adapt to these new needs. To support these efforts, the WHO Country Office in Ukraine and WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing jointly organized the second edition of the WHO Barcelona Course on Health Financing in the country, aimed to equip participants with the skills and knowledge needed to enable policy-makers to formulate and implement effective strategies for improving access to essential health-care services.
The course took place in Kyiv from 29–31 August with participation from more than 50 participants from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Ministry of Finance, National Health Service central and regional offices, President's Office, Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament), hospitals, primary health-care providers, and international partners.
“The course focuses on helping policy-makers design health systems that promote progress toward universal health coverage in a sustainable, efficient, and equitable manner, enabling people to access the services they need without facing financial hardship,” noted Dr Kalipso Chalkidou, Director of Health Financing and Economics at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva and one of the keynote speakers.
“When we are talking about services, we're referring to not just treatments, but the whole continuum from prevention and health promotion to diagnosis, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, to rehabilitation, and all the way to palliative care as needed,” she added.
Challenges of continuing reforms in Ukraine’s context of war
The health financing reform process in Ukraine began in 2017 and is now in its seventh year. According to Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine, the ongoing war poses significant challenges to the continuation of these reforms, with a notable increase in demand for mental health and rehabilitation services, as well as treatment for noncommunicable and chronic diseases.
“This course highlights the critical importance of ensuring affordable access to health care for everyone, leaving no one behind – a message that is highly relevant to Ukraine. I believe that the participants of this course now have a better understanding of how to adapt health financing and continue reforms, so that people in all regions, including remote and war-affected areas like Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions, close to the frontline, can access affordable medicines and health care,” he added.
“The content of this course was carefully tailored to the Ukrainian context, building on the regional course we hold annually in Barcelona. We highlighted successes and failures from other countries and presented effective mechanisms that can make health care more accessible and affordable,” said Tamás Evetovits, Head of the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing.
“Ukraine is implementing very ambitious health system reforms following good practices in health financing policy. We take this experience to the international stage and will be covering the Ukraine story in the upcoming regional course in Barcelona,” he added.
During the course opening, Minister of Health Viktor Liashko highlighted the importance of the course content for the future of the reform. “Despite the ongoing war, we remain committed to reforming Ukraine's health system while addressing the current challenges. Ensuring that people have access to high-quality and affordable health care is a fundamental priority guiding all our decisions. In these circumstances, it is crucial to learn from global best practices on health financing and the WHO Barcelona Course is especially relevant for our specialists. I am thankful to our international partners for their support of this initiative,” he said.
One of the participants, Dmytro Hurin, a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and Member of the Committee on National Health, Medical Care, and Health Insurance, noted that several recommended health financing policies are already applied in Ukraine, with the country adopting practices from effective health systems worldwide while also considering Ukraine's unique circumstances.
“This is a fundamental course because it showcases ideas and models of efficiency. We're currently suffering greatly from the low budgets in the health system, and we rely to a large extent on the support of our international partners, which places very high expectations on the cost-effectiveness of the system. Our greatest challenge at the moment is to draw on the experiences of countries that are most relevant to Ukraine,” he noted.
Building local level capacities
This year, the focus of the course was shifted slightly to not only include participants from the national but also from the regional level, an essential step to drive the reform further.
Hryhoriy Oksak, Chief Physician of the Poltava Regional Clinical Hospital, reflected, “During the course, we discussed all the challenges that we face every day in our work, and which are relevant for our hospital, especially health financing issues, such as how to improve the quality of patient care, taking into account limited resources. After the course, I feel more confident we are heading in the right direction.”
Event notice
On 29–31 August, the WHO Barcelona Course on Health Financing will be conducted in Ukraine for the second time.
The course will take place in Kyiv, organized by the WHO Country Office in Ukraine, together with the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing.
This course was designed to propose effective policy tools for health sector policy-makers aimed at advancing universal health coverage, improving service quality and ensuring financial protection for the population.
In the context of the ongoing war, it is crucial to support the national health sector and present global best practices and principles of health financing. Tailored to the Ukrainian context, this course will help Ukrainian health sector policy-makers to understand key health financing concepts and equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to formulate and implement effective strategies to improve access to essential health-care services.
The course will be taught by a number of the best international health financing experts, including senior health economists from the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing, who teach the regional health financing for universal health coverage course in Barcelona.