Health ministry hinders COVID-19 procurement by SOE Medical Procurement of Ukraine, sets too high prices – patients
The Health Ministry of Ukraine, independently making procurement of medical products to protect doctors from coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, actually manipulates tender conditions, procures biohazard suits at 40% higher prices, representatives of patient organizations said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
According to Executive Director of the Patients of Ukraine charitable foundation Inna Ivanenko, the state-owned enterprise (SOE) Medical Procurement of Ukraine procured biohazard suits, significantly reducing the price. At the same time, the Health Ministry announced a similar tender, which it conducted on its own. At the same time, in the procurement tender of the ministry, additional requirements were set for biohazard suits, which had not previously been presented in the procurement tenders for medical equipment held by clinics and local authorities through the ProZorro platform.
"In fact, the Health Ministry has changed the requirements [for biohazard suits] to take away the procurement, so that tenders are held by its own tender committee. The Health Ministry did not give the opportunity of participating in procurement for SOE Medical Procurement of Ukraine," she said.
According to estimates of patient organizations, since the tender is carried out by the tender committee of the ministry, and not the Health Ministry, the ministry can outspend 40% more of the budget funds from the reserve budget to combat COVID-19, for which it was possible to additionally procure an additional 50,000 protective suits for doctors.
According to Ivanenko, volunteers buy suits for Ukrainian doctors for about UAH 200, medical institutions in the regions – for UAH 200-300, the Medical Procurement of Ukraine planned to buy suits for UAH 245, while the Health Ministry intends to buy suits for UAH 500.
As a result, instead of 140,000 suits (90,000 under the terms of the tender and 50,000 suits that could be procured using the saved money), Ukrainian hospitals will receive only 70,000 suits.
Ivanenko said that the manufacturer of biohazard suits, which were procured by the Medical Procurement of Ukraine, had already made some of these suits and was ready to deliver them.
