Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko held a meeting to discuss the preparation of medical institutions in Donetsk Oblast for the autumn and winter period. The meeting was attended by Deputy Head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Yuriy Vinokurov and Director of the Health Department of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration Volodymyr Kolesnyk.
They discussed the readiness of hospitals in the region for the heating season. The final stage of preparing multidisciplinary healthcare facilities for the winter period is underway, but there are still risks associated with possible shelling of critical infrastructure.
In this context, the participants emphasized the importance of further strengthening the autonomy of hospitals to guarantee patients access to medical care under any circumstances.
In particular, eight multidisciplinary hospitals in the region are currently in the process of connecting to heating systems (five institutions are scheduled to be connected by the end of September, and three more - in October).
At the same time, all facilities are provided with backup power supplies to ensure stable medical care in case of emergency power outages. In addition, seven medical facilities are fully equipped with local heating sources. Work to increase their autonomy is ongoing.
Due to Russia's constant attacks on the energy infrastructure, hospitals must be prepared for prolonged power outages and operate autonomously.
As a reminder, Ukraine is actively providing medical facilities with generators, their own wells, autonomous boilers and other sources of backup power.
In total, 332 of the 632 medical facilities that are part of the capable healthcare network are fully autonomous, or more than half. They have generators, boilers and water sources. Another 564 facilities have backup heating systems, and 398 have their own wells. All of them have generators to keep them running in case of accidents. In total, Ukrainian hospitals have about 12,000 generators, of which almost 4,000 were donated during the full-scale war.
The Ministry of Health continues to work systematically to ensure that every hospital, regardless of region, is ready for winter and can provide uninterrupted care to patients even in the most difficult conditions.
Based on the materials of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine