Ukraine's Deputy Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko says experts from the WHO European Office will assess how Ukrainian jails are able to handle outbreaks of diseases, in particular, COVID-19.
"The WHO has significant experience in the development and implementation of programs to improve healthcare for people who are in penitentiary institutions. Finland, the UK and Portugal have already gone through the full path of such evaluation. Ukraine is next in line. And this is very positive news," the ministry's press service quoted Liashko as saying after a meeting with expert of the WHO European Office for Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Office), Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges.
A platform is now available in Ukraine for interaction between the Health Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the National Health Service and other partners on the coordination of civil and penitentiary healthcare, Liashko said.
Read alsoUkraine's Justice Ministry to introduce supervised probation (Video)In turn, the WHO expert said there are various models of healthcare systems management in prisons and other closed settings, but all of them should be based on the principles of everyone's priority right to protection of life and health.
