The mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and International Financial Corporation (IFC) signed an agreement to promote the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the city healthcare sector.

Klitschko stressed that healthcare reform is a key priority for the City authorities. "Our objective is that all Kyivans could access proper medical care, equal to that of Europe and all Kyiv physicians could have good working conditions and a sufficient paycheck", - emphasized Vitali Klitschko.

Mayor pointed out that the City council is budgeting for an annual increase in expenditure on public healthcare and this year the spending has significantly increased to reach UAH 9,1 billion.

Also, he reminded that last year 8 city health facilities underwent renovations, repairs, and refurbishment which amounted to UAH 1.1 billion. A piece of old and defunct equipment has been replaced with a brand-new one. "Such major hospital upgrades will continue this year. The City plans to construct new medical facilities, in particular, a hospital in Troeschina residential area and has already approached the planning of a new city emergency hospital located on the right bank (of the Dnipro river). Thus, the city Clinical Hospital №6 will be redeveloped to create a modern emergency hospital in Solom’yankyi district", - added Mayor.

At the same time, there is a need to improve the efficiency of other city hospitals, since not all of them meet the up-to-date standards of medical care. «Therefore City seeks to establish a Kyiv healthcare public-private partnership. And in this case, we rely on IFC support,» he said.

Mayor noted that IFC is a part of the World Bank Group and offers investment and advisory solutions for private sector development. "Today we sign an agreement on Kyiv hospital public-private partnership with IFC Regional Country Manager Jason Brett Pellmar. In particular, IFC will assist the City to structure and tender a public-private partnership arrangement in the health sector. It is the first project of its kind in Ukraine which envisages consolidation of some obsolete hospitals in a brand new facility", - emphasized Vitali Klitschko.

A new modern hospital will be built at the existing hospital site. The private partner will be responsible for its design, construction, equipping, maintenance, and proving clinical services (under consideration).

In turn, IFC Regional Country Manager Jason Brett Pellmar pointed out that "IFC will first assess to what extent three different health PPP models existing in Europe could be adapted to Ukraine. Later a PPP workshop with specialized companies will be organized to learn from international case studies". Pellmar added that "once the City selected a specific model, IFC will prepare the full feasibility study and help the City to prepare tender documents as well as to manage the tender process".