Ukraine’s Parliament Sets Medics’ Status Equal to the Military, Insures Lives and Health

07 May 2020 17:51

Medical worker checks the body temperature of the emergency doctors who are delivering the patient to the ward in Lviv, Ukraine on March 26.Photo: EPA-EFE / MARKIIAN LYSEIKO

The Ukrainian parliament has passed a bill that insures medics and equates them with soldiers serving on the frontline.

The corresponding document was supported by 360 MPs.

"Physicians who fight the spread of coronavirus, as well as the military in the east of the country, are on the front lines of defense," explains the reason for this decision, the ruling Servant of the People faction.

Thus, the approved bill provides:

- a physician who has died of coronavirus infection is equal in status to a serviceman who has died as a result of an injury, contusion, mutilation, or illness related to military service;

- members of the family of such an employee are guaranteed the same rights as members of the families of fallen servicemen;

- physicians who became infected with coronavirus during work and because of this received a disability category within a year will be insured for at least 300 subsistence minimums – depending on the degree of disability (currently it is set at 608,100 hryvnias ($22,685));

- in the event of the death of a healthcare worker from coronavirus, his family will receive an allowance of 750 subsistence minimums, which currently amounts to 1,520,250 hryvnias ($56,721).

This comes after the Rada also passed a bill on May 7 that increases the social protection of doctors and allows interns to be involved in the fight against COVID-19.