Money is short, so there will be a reorganization: how healthcare is being restructured in Mykolaiv

Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych reported on April 9, 2026, that during a session of the Mykolaiv City Council deputies supported several decisions concerning the further reform of the city’s medical network. The projects had also been approved the day before by the council’s deputy committee.

One of the decisions concerns Maternity Hospital No. 3. It is planned to be attached to the regional clinical hospital. According to the mayor, this is necessary so that the facility can officially obtain the status of a Level III perinatal center, operate at the regional level and qualify for additional funding for upgrades. The city council explains that, in fact, this maternity ward already performs the corresponding functions, but it still remains financially on the city’s balance sheet. Because of this, Mykolaiv is forced to top it up from the local budget.

Another package of decisions provides for the reorganization of city hospitals. It concerns the merger of Hospital No. 1, the Emergency Medical Care Hospital and Children’s Hospital No. 2 on the basis of Hospital No. 4. As a result, a clustered medical institution is to be created.

As Oleksandr Senkevych noted, it is precisely clustering that is one of the conditions of state policy in the field of healthcare and affects the amount of funding from the National Health Service of Ukraine. He said that currently some city hospitals are underfunded precisely because they lack such status, even though their workload does not decrease.

The city administration claims that the merger will make it possible to stabilize the work of medical institutions, receive higher funding coefficients and retain medical staff in the city. The authorities assure that the process will be phased and legally sound. It is also emphasized that during the reorganization the teams, the profiles of the institutions and the volume of medical services must be preserved. The mayor promised to inform about further steps separately.

We previously wrote:

• “No children — no money”: Maternity Hospital No. 3 has become too expensive for Mykolaiv
• 15 thousand instead of 200: Mykolaiv’s maternity hospital on the verge of disappearance due to the NHSU tariff
• “Don’t touch us!”: medical workers of the Korabelnyi district stood up to defend their polyclinic
• Hospitals are not being touched for now: deputies “removed from the agenda” the cuts of hospitals and medical centers
• To receive more funds: all hospitals in Mykolaiv will be merged into three clusters