Staffing of medical care for children in Ukraine in conditions of war and pandemic COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15574/PP.2024.3(99).7986Keywords:
personnel shortage, pediatricians, Ukraine, war, pandemic COVID-19Abstract
Most countries around the world report risks to children's health care due to a growing shortage of paediatricians.
Аim - to analyse the staffing of paediatric health care in Ukraine in the context of the ongoing war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and methods. The methods used were a systematic approach and comparative analysis of data from the state institution "Centre for Public Health of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine" for 2020-2023.
Results. During the years of the pandemic and full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, the number of paediatricians in Ukraine decreased by 1006 people, which led to a corresponding decrease in the paediatric care coverage rate by 12.5% to 1.19 per 1000 children, which may affect the quality and accessibility of medical care for children, especially newborns. The largest staff losses during the pandemic and war have been in paediatric pathology, pulmonology, phthisiology, infectious diseases, immunology, dentistry, dermatology, neurology, gynaecology, gastroenterology and neonatology, which has already led to problems in the availability of specialised paediatric care for children and newborns, especially in the frontline and de-occupied areas. In such difficult conditions, pediatric doctors and the system of providing medical care to Ukrainian children in general have proven their viability and are still able to withstand the double pressure of war and the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing a significant increase in child morbidity and infant mortality.
Conclusions. In order to eliminate the shortage of personnel, it is urgent to increase the number of doctors trained at higher medical educational institutions in specialty 228 «Paediatrics» to 1,000 per year, to adjust the state order and admission conditions accordingly, and to introduce paediatric residencies in the most popular specialties.
No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.
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