On May 31st, 2017 Ministry of Health of Ukraine hosted the meeting with the international guests – Baroness Alison Suttie, Member of House of the Lords of UK Parliament, Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the STOP TB partnership, Colleen Daniels, Human rights, gender and TB/HIV advisor. Ukrainian stakeholders were represented by the Deputy Minister of Health, Oxana Syvak, Head of the National Center for Public Health, Nataliya Nizova and Andrey Klepikov, Executive Director of the Alliance of Public Health with the Alliance’s TB team on board. The WHO has been presented by Head of Country office to Ukraine Dr. Marthe Everard.
The issues of success and challenges of Ukraine in TB Control and care have been discussed, as well as the ways on how to enhance the partnerships between all the stakeholders on the country level.
Baroness Alison Suttie said: “I see my role as trying to provide a bridge between Parliament, Government and civil society. We should all try to work with each other, rather than against each other to make this triangle work – with the legislature making the laws, civil society bringing in expertise and Government making the changes happen.”
Lucica Ditiu underlined, that on a way to transition for people-centered care, everyone should try to feel himself/herself in the patient’s shoes – to imagine how hard it is to take a medicine for such a long treatment and how brave one should be to move on.
The role of the Ministry of Finance on the ongoing medical care reform and promotion of the public health approaches has also been discussed – there should be effective reallocation of money in the TB care – with savings used effectively, for example on provision of the social support measure for the patient.
One of the existing platforms for ongoing communication between all Ukrainian stakeholders is the current #TB_REP National working group. Under the leadership of the National TB-REP Coordinator, effective working group with patients and diverse stakeholders on board will have a potential to provide a consolidated response for positive changes towards people-centered TB care.