Voice parliamentary faction demands health minister resignation

The neoliberal Voice parliamentary faction announced
on May 19 that it is gathering votes to dismiss Health Minister Maksym Stepanov,
alleging that he is playing a role in the theft of protective gear intended for
the nation’s medical workers. Voice MP Oleksandra Ustinova alleged that she
visited a customs checkpoint on May 18 where medical scrubs were supposed to
arrive, as had been announced by the minister. “Instead of 72,000 sets of
scrubs, 29 arrived. We are being lied to directly in our faces just as 100
medical workers get infected with COVID-19 every day,” Ustinova said from the
parliamentary tribune. The theft is occurring in addition to the health
ministry buying these medical scrubs at triple their true cost, she said,
alleging Stepanov is engaged in theft and murder. Those not signing the
resolution to dismiss Stepanov are complicit in his crimes, she said.

Zenon Zawada: The Voice
party, with close ties to Western-sponsored NGOs, has made the health
ministry’s performance during the coronavirus pandemic a key issue. So far, it
hasn’t produced political dividends, as evidenced by its dismal poll ratings.
But such pressure already helped to remove the prior health minister, the
allegedly corrupt Illia Yemets, and may produce results this time as well.

Besides fighting corruption, the Voice party is
also putting pressure on Stepanov (if not oust him altogether) to prevent any
attempt to derail the healthcare reform program initiated by former health
minister Ulana Suprun, an American radiologist who resettled in Ukraine and
initiated the biggest changes to the nation’s state-run healthcare starting in
2016. Most notably, the reforms call for financing hospitals based on their
patient volume, not their reported beds.