A $215 million loan issued by the World Bank for the Serving People, Improving Health Project for Ukraine together with the national budget funds will create a basis for launching the health care system reform in Ukraine scheduled for 2016, Health Minister Alexander Kvitashvili has said at a press briefing.

"The year of 2015 is a transitional year, which will allow to build a basis, on which the reform of the health care system will be implemented in 2016. The main objective of the reform is to provide poor people with access to medical care and legalize informal payments. In particular, it is planned this year to calculate the cost of medical services, implement information services, as well as focus on the qualitative improvement of primary health care," the minister said.

According to World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Qimiao Fan, the World Bank Board of Directors decided to issue a loan because of the disappointing data on the health of Ukrainians.

"Life expectancy in Ukraine is on average 11 years less than in the European Union. Ukrainians die at an early age, in particular, because of the imperfection of the Ukrainian health care system. In this regard, we made the decision and call on mass media and public organizations to monitor the use of the funds granted," he said.

The project will be implemented in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zakarpattia, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Poltava and Rivne regions, each of which, in addition to funds allocated by local authorities, will receive $41 million from the loan.