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Ukrainian medical universities will strengthen the training of family and military doctors
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Oleksandr Volosovets, Acting Director of the Department of Personnel, Education and Science of Ukraine, made the announcement at a short press conference dedicated to the 2014 admissions campaign for higher medical educational institutions and the provision of personnel for the medical industry.
According to him, currently over 180 thousand doctors work in the national health care system, but there is a shortage of specialists (more than 40 thousand). In 2013, the overall staffing level was at 82%. Ukraine is in dire need of family doctors, emergency doctors, and military doctors, whose training is currently almost zero. A particularly pressing problem today is the staffing of health care institutions in rural areas.
The team of the Minister of Health of Ukraine Oleh Musiy has developed a concept for building a new national health care system. According to the plan, high-quality personnel provision for the medical sphere is necessary, primarily in rural areas, where it is necessary to develop a system of local stimulation for doctors. According to Oleh Volosovets, the new medical system will allow local communities to care for, protect and love their doctor - this is what we should strive for, in addition, such an attitude towards doctors will provide work in rural areas for more than seven thousand specialists.
Alexander Volosovets also reported that in order to eliminate the current disproportion between the level of medical care in rural areas and the city, more than 4 thousand doctors have been provided with jobs today, which is almost 100% of the total number of students who were trained under government orders.
More than half of them were sent to health care facilities in rural areas, in particular to primary health care centres.
Therefore, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine increased the state order for training doctors this year - the volume of admission to the specialty of a doctor in the direction of "Medicine" amounted to over 5 thousand people, 597 places more than last year.
Oleg Volosovets told journalists that it was this direction that determined the peculiarities of admission of applicants in 2014 to higher medical educational institutions. A special headquarters was created in the Ministry of Health, and special hotlines operate in each medical university, which allow promptly solving the problems that arise during this year's admissions campaign. This year, more than 73 thousand applicants wished to study at higher Ukrainian medical institutions (more than 12 thousand young people applied for admission to the O. Bogomolets National Medical University, more than 9 thousand people to the Pirogov Vinnytsia National Medical University, more than 7 thousand applicants to the Lviv National Medical University, and almost 5 thousand people to the Kharkiv National Medical University). The largest competition (about 30 people per place) is observed for pharmaceutical specialties, medical psychology, and dentistry.
More than 60% of applications were submitted by applicants electronically, which is very convenient for both future students and the admissions committee, and in the future the Ministry of Health plans to actively develop this area.
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