Secondary healthcare, including consultations of specialists, tests and examination will be provided free of charge from 2019, if family doctors issue a referral, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has said.

"From January 1, 2019, everyone, who goes to receive Secondary healthcare services with a referral of a family doctor, will be paid," he said at an extraordinary government meeting in Kyiv on Friday.

Groysman said that the draft national budget for 2019 projects UAH 2 billion for these purposes.

As reported, the Health Ministry in 2019 plans to launch the reform of financing outpatient medical care, including tests, instrumental examinations and consultations of specialists. The healthcare institutions that signed agreements with the National Health Service of Ukraine would provide outpatient services free of charge.