On 5 August 2016, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine hosted the second meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Medication Assisted Treatment at the MoH.
On 5 August 2016, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Ukraine hosted the second meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Medication Assisted Treatment at the MoH (hereinafter – IWG). The meeting was held with technical and organizational support of the Alliance for Public Health (within the project “Improved Quality and Sustainability of Medication Assisted Treatment in Ukraine”) together with the Ukrainian Center of Socially Dangerous Disease Control.
The key issue of the meeting was introducing the Methodology of calculating the need in drugs to provide medication assisted treatment to patients with mental and behavior disorders associated with the use of opioids for the purposes of drugs procurement within the state budget.
The above Methodology was developed in line with the resolution of the IWG as of 1 July 2016 by representatives of the Ukrainian Center of Socially Dangerous Disease Control and the Alliance for Public Health.
Other questions discussed at the meeting also included organization of an International center for substance abuse treatment and HIV prevention technologies in Ukraine; situation with introduction of the practice of MAT drugs delivery to patients for unsupervised administration in outpatient settings (prescriptions for drugs, delivery within “home care” or directly from treatment institutions), protection of the rights of patients.
During the meeting, information was presented on the current situation with issuance of a joint order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine “On approval of the procedure of cooperation among healthcare institutions, departments and bodies of the National Police, National Guard of Ukraine, pre-trial detention centers, penitentiary facilities and criminal and executive inspections to ensure the delivery of medication assisted treatment to patients with opioid dependence”. According to the information presented, the draft order is currently in the process of approval by the MoH of Ukraine and will soon be published for public discussion.
Based on the results of the meeting, a decision was made to urgently finalize the developed Methodology of calculating the need in drugs to provide medication assisted treatment for its approval with an order of the MoH of Ukraine, with further steps defined to enhance the partnership in response to patients’ appeals related to violation of their rights and to provide clarifications to regions on the delivery of MAT drugs for unsupervised administration.