During the last UCAB meeting on February 3-5 in Kyiv, the members agreed to change the name into Charitable foundation ‘Patients of Ukraine’.
‘Renaming is completely logical evolution for our organization, — says Dmytro Sherembey, the Head of the Board of “Patients of Ukraine (UCAB)”. — When establishing the organization we took the European prototype of patients’ communities (ECAB) as an example. It was established to protect the rights of patients before the pharmaceutical companies, first of all — the rights of people living with HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis. But we realized, that while focusing on these diseases we nonetheless can help much more patients with various diseases: from cancer to rare childhood diseases like cystic fibrosis. That’s why we decided to shift to the new clear and comprehensible name’.
We will use the double name “Patients of Ukraine (UCAB)” to adapt to the new one for 6 months more. After that only the name ‘Patients of Ukraine’ will be used in all media and other materials.
Due to expansion of activity areas, the membership was also extended. The representatives of the patients’ organizations dealing with cancer and rare childhood diseases, cystic fibrosis in particular, joined «Patients of Ukraine (UCAB)» at the General Assembly.
The members unanimously agreed not only on renaming, but also on the idea of UCAB activities expansion and including other diseases. The diseases will include those covered by the Ministry of Health hospital programs: phenylketonuria, cardio-vascular diseases, autism, Down-syndrome, mucopolysaccharidosis, diabetes etc.
‘The advocacy of the state funds for treatment of all state programs was chosen as a priority area for the year 2014, — states Olga Stefanyshyna, the Executive Director of “Patients of Ukraine (UCAB)”. — Besides, we realized that increase of funding and patients’ monitoring of spending these funds don’t solve all the main problems in healthcare. So, our organization, as one of the leaders in advocacy and lobbying in this area, decided to implement innovative international tools to overcome corruption in state procurements systematically. — added Mrs. Stefanyshyna.
The Secretariat had also presented the detailed plan of implementation due to each target and described its vision of systematic changes in health care to the General Assembly.
