On October 12th, the delegation from Poltava arrived in Kharkiv to exchange practices on the issues of social and medical protection of the population. The purpose of the visit was Kharkiv’s interest in the system of palliative care services, and work with disabled children.
The Head of the Healthcare Department of Poltava Sergei Kotov said that they don’t have hospices in the city yet, therefore practices in the Kharkiv area are very important for Poltava.
The deputy mayor of Kharkiv Svetlana Gorbunova-Ruban signed a memorandum of cooperation in this area, and the document was handed to delegation to sign it by the deputy mayor of Poltava Svetlana Porokhnya. Then they visited the Rehabilitation Centre for disabled children, “Promin” for those disabled since childhood, urban and regional hospices.
“Palliative care, hospice organizations, and home visiting service are not widespread in Ukraine. These issues are only beginning to rise in our society. But Kharkiv has five years of experience in this area and only now we need to take it upon ourselves to share it,” said Svetlana Gorbunova-Ruban.
“There are a lot of developments in health care in Kharkiv. Your city is before other regions of the country in many issues. First of all, we are interested in exploring your experience in the creation of hospices and in providing palliative care. We want to see these processes from the inside. We also plan to build a hospice in Poltava, and I am sure that the experience gained in Kharkiv will give us an opportunity to implement this project as soon as possible,” said Sergey Kotov.
