Prague will host an international conference to help Ukrainian healthcare.

The international conference Global Healthcare Initiative for Ukraine, which will take place on 5-6 May 2025 in Prague under the auspices of Czech First Lady Eva Pavlova, aims to offer unique Czech experiences and stimulate further healthcare assistance to Ukraine. It will feature expert panels of key players from the public and private sectors and the opportunity to present concrete solutions. 

Representatives of the Ukrainian and Czech governments, Ukrainian regions and hospitals currently receiving assistance, and the non-profit and commercial sector that provides funding for these projects will attend the conference.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine militarily in February 2022, medical aid also began to flow into the occupied country. The Czech Republic responded very quickly to the needs of the Ukrainian healthcare system. Thanks to the cooperation of several Czech ministries, the involvement of development cooperation projects, the willingness of medical device manufacturers, and international programs, medical devices worth hundreds of millions of crowns arrived in Ukraine in three years. Above all, the Czech Republic offers Ukraine comprehensive solutions for its healthcare system and responds to its specific needs.

In addition to separate specialized supplies of devices or beds for Ukrainian medical facilities, hospitals and laboratories in Lviv, Volyn, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kyiv or Chihuviv, Czech aid also focuses on mobile solutions that help save lives directly in the field. To help those in need, the Czech Republic has already handed over to its Ukrainian partners two specially adapted evacuation buses to facilitate the care of the wounded and sick, a mobile tent clinic or a tent “town” with a sanitation unit that can serve as emergency accommodation. 

Czech medical technology manufacturers participated in projects to help Ukraine independently and within the Czech Health Technology Institute (CHTI) framework. Together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, CHTI is one of the co-organizers of the Global Healthcare Initiative for Ukraine conference.

Last year, the companies, in cooperation with CHTI, jointly delivered six sets of primary care in the form of a package of equipment to the offices of general practitioners and gynaecologists and theatres of minor surgical procedures. “The delivery of turnkey sets was made possible by an international project to restore the war-damaged healthcare system in Ukraine,” adds Petr Foit, chairman of the board of directors of the Czech Health Technology Institute. 

This includes not only the supply of medical equipment and supplies but also ‘soft’ assistance in the form of training and education. In cooperation with leading Czech medical device manufacturers, courses on the development and maintenance of innovative technologies in the healthcare sector are held at the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering of the CTU for personnel in Ukraine.

“Under the auspices of the Czech Development Agency, we are implementing a project to strengthen healthcare capacities in Ukraine, which is trying to comprehensively address the problem of overuse of antibiotics, which is a big problem in Ukraine after the outbreak of the war,” adds Petr Foit.

The MEDEVAC program, which runs under the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, also offers internships and training for Ukrainian doctors, expert missions of Czech operators to Ukraine, and direct deliveries of material aid.