Recently, the experts of the Open Contracting published the story of evolution of the medical procurement in Ukraine: from the doubtful tenders and transfer of the public procurements to the international specialized agencies in 2015 to the development of the national procurement agency SE “Medical Procurement of Ukraine”.
The main focus of the article - results that we managed to achieve through several years of our work:
- in 2020 we effectively performed 80% of the procedures within state programmes of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine. We saved around UAH 1.08 billion or 21,5% of the taxpayers money;
- we experienced unprecedented competition at some of the procedures - up to 10 participants, while the average number of the participants at our procedures at Prozorro were 2,91;
- we had 130 unique bidders. Among the top 10 bidders, which ensured the largest reduction at the auctions, nine are manufacturers. This shows that we attract global producers to the Ukrainian market and have their trust.
Our core task is to introduce a medical procurement system that fosters added value for all: for patients by ensuring access to quality medicines and medical supplies; for tax payers by using their money rationally; for suppliers by enabling them to market their products within transparent and non-discriminatory environment. Such system cannot operate effectively unless there is a well established state agency that administers it.
Such institutions and systems should not be taken for granted. They are developed through the tireless work of result-oriented people that strive to create systematic changes. In the period of political turbulences, protection and support of such institutions and their teams from the society is extremely important.
Together with the authors of the article we believe that to go all the way through to the effective state procurement in healthcare was impossible without the strong support from the international partners and patients’ organizations. Their contribution to expanding patients' access to quality treatment is exceptional.
Our common efforts demonstrate that state medical procurements can be transparent, efficient and reliable, and the public officials - decent and professional.