Local authorities remain committed to pay for utility services of reorganized healthcare institutions, which obtained a status of municipally owned non-profit enterprises, Deputy Health Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Kovtonyuk has said.

"The reorganized healthcare institutions are municipally owned institutions and local budgets are to pay for heating and other utility services for them. This is outlined in the Budget Code. This does not change and does not depend on the organization form of an institution," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Kovtoniuk said that the Health Ministry constantly delivers this information to local authorities.

"I believe that local officials should know the Budget Code without our reminder – it is their direct work. Fortunately, such cases, when an institution was reorganized and local authorities stopped paying for its utility services and other expenses, are isolated, but they are unpleasant," he said.

According to Kovtoniuk, the cases, when local authorities refused to pay for utility services of reorganized medical institutions, were recorded in Kyiv and Kolomyia (Ivano-Frankivsk region).

He also recalled that the grace period for the reorganization of medical institutions is effective only until the end of 2018. In particular, the point is that starting from 2019, the procedures for property appraisal, liabilities to creditors and a number of others procedures will be mandatory.

"Today, medical institutions are exempted from these problems. For example, if you have debts, you can be reorganized, and then pay them out in accordance with the creditor," he said.