Ukrainian doctors, Great Falls residents introduced
A delegation of five Ukrainian doctors in Great Falls studying U.S. health care this week spoke before an audience Monday morning of about 30 at Great Falls College-Montana State University.
The delegates are participating in the Open World Leadership Program, a program funded by congress that allows cultural exchange between young leaders in former Soviet countries and politicians and ordinary people in the United States.
Great Falls' Advisory Commission on International Relationships is hosting the delegation, whose goal it is to learn about American health care, particularly telemedicine. To achieve that, the delegation will travel to hospitals in Havre and Fort Benton to see how telemedicine is working in northcentral Montana. They will also see demonstrations of medical technologies now in use in Great Falls hospitals and shadow local doctors. The physicians will meet with congressional delegations and visit Carroll College in Helena.
Monday's presentation was an introduction of the delegates to the community and included a formal welcome by Mayor Michael Winters. Following a short presentation about Ukraine, the doctors answered questions about the health care and political situations in the country that has been experiencing harassment from Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Citizens in western and central Ukraine, including the capital of Kiev, are not experiencing violence firsthand, said Dr. Taras Sopilnyak, a cardiologist. But those living in eastern Ukraine are under constant threat of attack.
"They are going through real, full-scale war" against "the most modern Russian weapons," Sopilnyak said through translator Tatiana Lukenbill.
The rate of inflation has hit 50 percent, said Sopilnyak and there is "a sense of anxiety and fear and instability around us."
Sopilnyak expressed worry that if Putin does not respect Ukraine's eastern border, he will eventually move across all of Ukraine and into Poland too.
Early in the presentation, Sopilnyak explained that Ukraine, a country of 44 million people, is restructuring its health care system and looking for a model system. Currently, Ukrainian citizens are guaranteed free health care in the constitution, but the physicians explained that is often not the case.
Often, people with the means pay for good doctors and faster service, Sopilnyak said. Some large companies are introducing medical insurance to their employees, but insurance is still not well-understood by the average Ukrainian citizen.
Poor people receive medical care in hospitals, but basically just enough to keep them alive, said neurology Dr. Kseniya Borokova. People who want effective treatments must pay out of their own pockets, she said.
One member of the audience asked what, if anything, the average American can do to help Ukrainians struggling against Russian attack.
Sopilnyak urged people to be vocal about their support of Ukraine, expressing a belief that if enough people feel a certain way, the government must capitulate to their wishes. However, he said he doesn't expect American forces to march into Ukraine.
Dr. Katerina Tikhonova, an ophthalmologist and general surgeon, said she knew of an American family who purchased a bullet-proof vest for a Ukrainian man who had been drafted into service. The man was told the Ukrainian government would provide all of his equipment, but when he reported for duty, all he got was a helmet that had been manufactured in 1954.
In addition to Tikhonova, Borokova and Sopilnyak, the delegation is also composed of cardiologist Dr. Roman Ovsiychuk and radiologist Dr. Oksana Predzemirska.