Health Sector

Ukraine is suffering from fast growing HIV and tuberculosis epidemics due to the low amount of health expenditures and difficult access to facilities. The ratio of doctors to citizens causes a dramatic problem for reaching care. In Ukraine there are only 4.5 doctors to every 1,000 citizens. This is drastically lower than any other country.

"I remember going into the doctors office and waiting for hours to see a doctor for 5 minutes. Going to the doctors appointment was a whole day excursion. In America, I hear people complaining about waiting an hour for a doctor, but to me thats nothing compared to what I had to wait in Ukraine. Not only do I have to wait barely anytime at all, but at the American health facilities I get to wait in luxury. There are vending machines, magazines, toys for the kids and comfy chairs."

-Oksana

Not only are there not enough facilities, but the facilities that do exist are in terrible condition. They are overcrowded, run down buildings. They are too small to help a significant amount of people. Doctors lack the resources to help people get better. This is one sector that the amount of corruption in the political sector trickles down and greatly affects the health sector. Until the government as a whole can get organized, the smaller sectors will not be able to improve either.

People suffer, because health system changes never get made. Citizens and government officials demand health system changes to help deal with the troubling epidemics, but due to the lack of funds and lack of government organization nothing can get accomplished.