Ukraine can achieve so-called transplant independence, and citizens who need organ transplants will be able to get such a surgery without leaving the country. This will happen in three years, the Minister of Health Maxym Stepanov assured on December 26.
He added that this week the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decree on the Unified State Information System for Organ and Tissue Transplantation. "The purpose of this decree is to ensure the launch of the system from January 1, 2021 that should ensure the selection of donor-recipient pairs. Without such a system, the transplantation system will not be able to fully function," the minister explained.
Also this week, it was decided to create a center that will deal with all transplantation issues. Stepanov believes that about 5,000 surgeries per year can be done in Ukraine. This year about a hundred of them were done.
The minister did not say anything about the training of surgeons capable of doing various transplant operations in such numbers and about the equipment of the corresponding clinics.
At the Ministry of Health initiative, the government has expanded the list of healthcare institutions that are participating in the pilot transplant project to 38.
During 2020, 8 heart transplants, 19 liver transplants, 91 kidney transplants were done in Ukraine. In total, 118 transplants were done this year, compared to 78 that were done in 2019. In 2021, Ukraine will at least double the number of transplants—at least 250 vital organs transplants will be done.
Additionally. Stepanov said in early December that the coronavirus vaccine will be available in Ukraine at the end Q1—beginning of Q2, that is, in March-April 2021.
