Professor Viacheslav Kaminsky: “Reform Does Not Mean Destroying Everything That Has Been Achieved”
An interview on healthcare reform, maternity care, medical staffing and reproductive medicine.
Interview with Professor Viacheslav Kaminsky
Professor Viacheslav Kaminsky discusses demographic decline, the state of maternity care, healthcare reform and reproductive medicine in Ukraine. He argues that reform should be patient-centred but must preserve systems and professional expertise that already work effectively.
The interview covers family-centred childbirth, the safety of hospital delivery, regional perinatal centres, shortages of obstetrician-gynecologists and the importance of postgraduate medical education. Kaminsky supports the presence of relatives during childbirth when it does not interfere with clinical safety, while rejecting home birth as an unsafe substitute for properly equipped maternity care.
He describes the need for regionalisation so that women can receive qualified care close to home, and warns that the number of obstetrician-gynecologists has declined significantly. He criticises attempts to dismantle academic and clinical structures before new systems and staff are ready.
A substantial part of the interview concerns infertility treatment and reproductive medicine. Kaminsky notes that Ukrainian clinics achieve internationally competitive results and attract foreign patients, but state-supported treatment remains inaccessible to many Ukrainian families. He calls for stronger public support for reproductive health, prevention, adolescent health and the restoration of the country’s reproductive potential.