Penitentiary medicine in the context of national health care reform in Ukraine

Abstract

The aim: Identify the main issues in the penitentiary medicine functioning in the context of National Health Care Reform in Ukraine and determine the state of realization of the right to health care and medical assistance of convicts and detainees. Materials and methods: This article used a set of general and special methods of scientific cognition. The empirical basis of the research consists of: inter national acts and standards in the penitentiary field and health care, statistics of the Ministry of Justice, reports of international organizations, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), scientific publications in databases of systematic reviews MEDLINE, PubMed, reports on the results of monitoring visits to prisons and pre-trial detention centers. Conclusions: Penitentiary medicine continues to be a separate departmental system, which does not consider the positive changes in the National Medical Services System. Such a superficial imitation of the method of guaranteeing prisoners’ rights to medical care is a kind of cargo cultism of public institutions designed to ensure non-discriminatory conditions for implementing the right to health care for all population segments.