Healthcare Perceptions among Patients and Physicians in Kyiv, Ukraine

The objective of this study is to analyze the perceptions and beliefs of Ukrainian patients and physicians regarding access to healthcare within Ukraine. The Ukrainian national healthcare system, like that of many post-Soviet countries, is ostensibly free to all Ukrainian citizens and legally-residing foreigners. That said, it is widely considered inefficient, of poor quality, and corrupt. Healthcare in Ukraine has recently begun to undergo several dramatic changes, including reforms to the nationalized system, and the emergence of a rapidly growing privatized healthcare system. Little research has been done in English language journals regarding the experiences of Ukrainian patients and physicians regarding their healthcare system. Non- academic English language media often cites stereotypes endemic to post-Soviet healthcare systems, such as long-waiting lines and the need to pay bribes, as the primary factors identified by the average citizen of post-Soviet countries. Whether such stereotypes are identified as the defining factors of the healthcare system by those who interact with it is a topic that has yet to be studied. This study consists of a thematic analysis of a collection of interviews with Ukrainian patients and doctors gathered in 2018 in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Interview subjects were selected through a snowball sampling method, with initial subjects consisting of contacts through Taras-Shevchenko University in Kyiv. The thematic analysis indicates that the Ukrainian citizens who interact with their healthcare system identify a broad range of causal factors for why their healthcare needs are rarely met, with distrust in physicians and medical authority most critically assigned blame, and the stereotypes so often ascribed to post-Soviet healthcare systems only mentioned tangentially. Funding to perform this research has been provided by the Stanley Undergraduate Award for International Research and additional funding to perform the thematic analysis was provided by the John and Elsie Mae Ferentz Undergraduate Research Fund.