Serhii Ubohov: “TNMU Has Made a Very Positive Impression on Me!”

On December 26-27, 2023, the Head of the Department of Medical Personnel, Education and Science of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Professor Serhii Ubohov, paid a working visit to I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University.

Serhii Ubohov visited TNMU for the first time as an official of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. The office he heads is a specialised department for medical universities of Ukraine, and most of the processes are monitored remotely by its specialists. It was decided to get acquainted with the work of universities live. Serhii Ubohov noted that he had very positive impressions of TNMU. He took part in the scheduled meeting of the Academic Board and, together with the Rector of Ternopil Medical University Mykhaylo Korda, presented the certificates of professors and associate professors to TNMU staff.

After that, during his speech addressing members of the Academic Board, the distinguished guest noted that “TNMU is one of the best universities in Ukraine, and not only among medical universities”. Serhii Ubohov drew attention to the fact that every medical university should have its own university hospital in order to ensure the process of training students and interns as much as possible. According to him, the Ternopil region and Ternopil are problematic because there is no university hospital here, which is why there is a problem with the placement of clinical departments. The Head of the Department of Medical Personnel, Education and Science of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine added that “changes in the legislation are needed, in particular, in the law on rent, an exception should be made for state medical universities, not to charge them unaffordable rent”.

Responding to a question about the introduction of a new internship model, Serhii Ubohov noted that “the list of specialties has changed: it has decreased from 35 to 23, some specialties have been transferred to secondary specialization. The requirements for internship clinical facilities and internship supervisors were also changed, the requirements for interns’ certification were described in more detail, which refers to “Krok-3″, a practical exam. But the most fundamental thing is that the rating distribution has been introduced. Because of the war, it did not take place in full. For two years, the distribution took place at the level of universities according to the principle that a rating was based on academic performance. Health care institutions collected the number of vacant places through the regional health care department. Complete transparency was ensured: the ranking and places were published on the university’s website. At the same time, the website of the Ministry of Health published all vacancies in each region, and later the places allocated to the university. Ideally, this distribution should be all-Ukrainian. And this is the only thing that we could not implement, since it is impossible to do it manually. How do we see the distribution? In order to minimize the human factor, make it transparent, objective and fair, so that a graduate of Ternopil Medical University can choose not only those regions that we have assigned to the university, but in any corner of Ukraine, an appropriate algorithm is embedded in the electronic system , where the wishes of the graduates themselves are taken into account. The higher the rating, the greater the chance to choose from the available places the best ones offered by the state or institutions that are ready to provide internships at the expense of the state budget. Now, the technical requirements for all-Ukrainian distribution using an electronic system, which turned out to be very time-consuming, have already been developed, so we hope to be in time by June 2024. Currently, we are still deciding how to act with dental graduates and pharmacists, since there are not so many budgetary places for them. Perhaps we will provide a certain number of vacant places in the country for them and offer them to participate if they wish, because it so happened that the majority chooses to work in private clinics anyway. Some specialties that the state desperately needs – epidemiology, medical psychology, psychiatry, infectious diseases, laboratory diagnostics, microbiology, virology – as an exception, will probably be offered to those who study at their own expenses as well, because we have to fill these personnel needs”.

Serhii Ubohov’s work as the general director of the Directorate of Medical Personnel, Education and Science of the Ministry of Health began a month before the full-scale war. As he himself noted, this is a very responsible mission that gives him the opportunity to implement many important projects, initiatives and innovations. “I managed to do some things, in particular, for my favorite pharmacy. For example, for years, the issue of approving the Master of Pharmacy standard was not resolved, they could not find a compromise solution. We did find it, and today the pharmaceutical education community has its own standard for Master’s degree. They also introduced the training of clinical pharmacists at the postgraduate stage, because today there is a great need for them. Many issues have been resolved for internships, continuous professional development, certification of healthcare workers. We are now introducing a medical residency. Much has also been done for so-called professionals with higher non-medical education. It was nice to hear words of appreciation for finally solving the issue which had not been resolved for 20-30 years,” Serhii Ubohov said.

According to Serhii Ubohov, corruption remains the main enemy in Ukraine. “Today, thanks to various innovations and changes in approaches, corruption is simply impossible. If we make an electronic system of distribution to internships, then corruption will be completely impossible. We are also creating a portal for vacant positions in communal state institutions, because there is also a lot of bribery there. Now everything will be objective and transparent, that is, these corruption channels for those who work in regional departments, in the management or personnel service of hospitals will be closed. This is one of the most serious problems that undermines us from the inside. When they hear about our corruption, our international partners also stop helping us. I think we all need a reboot – mental, moral and ethical. For years, we have been taught corruption at all levels: even parents of schoolchildren gave something to someone to get a grade, gave bribes at universities during admission and graduation, during employment. And it has rooted in our mentality. And our people, who scold the government for corruption, with the second hand create it themselves at a small level. This is a serious challenge. There is no need to constantly look for extremes, saying that someone is to blame for my problems. Or simply give yourself an honest diagnosis, identify your weaknesses and shortcomings, start working on them and take responsibility for yourself, your country, and your professional life. At least, as much as we can. Our mentality has been formed in very tragic historical periods for several centuries, so Ukrainians have developed both very good personal qualities and not so beneficial ones. But you can and should work on it. I believe that Ukraine has enormous potential, we can become one of the leading countries in Europe, when people will come to us instead of leaving our country,” Serhii Ubohov says.

Finally, the distinguished guest added that he likes the TNMU team. “Although I have come officially for the first time, I am always watching your university. I listen, compare, track. And not only me. You have a constant search for new things, moving forward, developing. Your team is trained for this. Therefore, keep it up and strive for more!”, Serhii Ubohov wished.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko.