PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN THE LIGHT OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESSES

Abstract

The aim of the article is to thoroughly characterize the rights of all health care workers in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine, as well as to identify problems that arise in the process of protecting the rights of health care workers and to propose ways to eliminate them.
 Materials and methods. In the course of the research 1,000 healthcare workers were interviewed and surveyed regarding the violation of their fundamental rights in the city of Kyiv and medical and preventive institutions of the Kyiv region. Evaluating the violation of the rights of health care workers, it was found that every fifth medical worker notes the violation of his rights by patients, which is 70%, and by health care institutions – 25%; from colleagues – 3%; the other 2% refrained from answering.
 The results. As of January 1, 2024, according to the statistical data of the National Health Service of Ukraine, it is stated that from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023 in Ukraine: the number of specialist doctors increased by 5.2% (+4667), by 4.9% (+1280) – primary care physicians (PHC), by 6.7% (+9961) – secondary medical personnel [1]. Thus, the number of medical workers (doctors, middle and junior staff (without pharmacists)) in the Electronic Health Care System as of January 1, 2022 was more than 288000, as of January 1, 2024 – 345000, and medical institutions – 7,393. In July 2023, the number of medical workers was already 396000, and the number of medical institutions was 6559. Whereas in December, the number of medical workers increased to almost 520000, and medical institutions – to 8444 [2].
 Conclusions. In order to improve the protection of the rights of healthcare workers, it is necessary to implement at the legislative level the concept of medical neutrality, which should apply in all democratic countries, regardless of the situations that arise in society. The authors formulated the main principles of medical neutrality, in particular: protection of medical workers, patients, health care institutions and other medical formations, medical vehicles from attacks or from illegal interference; free access to medical care, in particular treatment, as well as necessary medicines and medical devices; humane treatment of the entire civilian population; lack of discrimination in the treatment of the sick or injured; observance of the rights of patients, in particular, to keep a secret about the state of health, to refuse treatment.