Ulyana Suprun. How an American volunteer minister finished off Ukrainian medicine
Ulyana Suprun, an American and Maidan volunteer, headed the Ministry of Health (as Acting Officer) on August 1, 2016, at the personal invitation of Petro Poroshenko. After this appointment, one might think that the social elevator in our country had started working – a simply responsible and proactive person came to power, aimed at reforming the corrupt system. However, this is nothing more than an attempt by the current government to put in the “hot” seat a person outside the system who does not understand the basics of management in healthcare.
The little-known acting minister Ulyana Suprun seems like a saint compared to the rest, but there are blemishes in her biography.
Ulyana Suprun: Made in USA
Suprun Ulyana Nadiya (nee Yurkiv) was born in Detroit (USA) in 1963. She has Ukrainian roots. Ulyana’s grandmother, Maria Voloshchuk, originally from Volyn, was an active participant in the liberation movement of 1930-1940 in Ukraine.
Ulyana Suprun with her grandmother
Grandfather – Ivan Yurkiv was a lieutenant in the UPR army (1919). At the beginning of World War II, he appeared as the “commandant of the Ukrainian police.” Since the Germans did not have “commandants”, then, most likely, we are talking about the “Ukrainian police”, which was created in the OUN in the summer-autumn of 1941. The activist’s family immigrated after World War II to West Germany and then to the United States. In the USA, Suprun’s father, George Yurkiv, began buying and selling shares. Profitable deals allowed him to become a shareholder and vice president of North American Controls (production of military equipment) and provide his children with a comfortable future.
Ulyana Suprun was brought up in a national-patriotic spirit. The girl went to a Ukrainian school and church, and was a member of the Plast scout organization. Parents brought their daughter to Ukraine for the first time when she was 11 years old. After that, they came to their homeland several more times.
Ulyana Nadiya received her education at the Medical College of the University of Michigan (that is, her education is not higher, but let’s say, basic!). In 1989, she became a certified radiologist in the field of breast diagnostics. By the way, the cost of training in this specialty is 450 thousand dollars, so it is available only to the children of the rich. Additionally, Suprun studied radiology at Henry Ford Hospital, while heading its “women’s” department, and Sinai Grace Hospital. Speaking in our language, the current minister is a radiologist. In our country, the profession is not very profitable, but in America it is a highly paid position (an x-ray in the USA costs from 300 to 500 dollars) with a minimum of responsibility.
After graduating, Ulyana Nadiya meets her future husband Marco, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent, and they move to New York. Ulyana gets a job as a radiologist in a private clinic.
Ulyana Suprun with her husband Marko
In addition, the young couple leads an active social life – they take part in various kinds of pro-Ukrainian projects.
In 1990, Ulyana became a member of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which unites the Ukrainian diaspora in 44 countries. During this period, the couple regularly comes to Ukraine on various missions – humanitarian and intellectual. In 1992, they even celebrated the second anniversary of the country’s independence in the capital. On this visit, the family encountered Ukrainian medicine for the first time in their lives. Marco’s appendix became inflamed. The operation was performed in the capital. According to Ulyana Suprun, she was struck by the difference between the medical services provided in Ukraine and in America.
Information about doctor Ulyana Suprun on sharecare.com
From 1995 to 2013, the volunteer was a member of the Ukrainian Youth Union in New York, where for two years he headed the Council for providing humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians. Her other position is president of the Ukrainian-American Civil Liberties Association.
In 2000, Suprun and a colleague founded the Medical Imaging of Manhattan clinic in central New York. The medical institution specializes in radiology of women’s diseases – mammography, ultrasound, biopsy.
Ulyana Suprun. How an American volunteer minister finished off Ukrainian medicine
This is something like a very large, cool and expensive “diagnostic office”, of which there are so many now in Ukraine: everyone only diagnoses, but no one treats. The clinic was doing well, because Americans have an unspoken belief that they need to undergo all examinations regularly. Now let’s multiply the part of the population of the Big Apple by the average cost of the service of 300-500 dollars. It turns out to be a tidy sum. Ulyana headed the “diagnostic office” for 8 years.
From this Skelet.Info concludesthat Suprun did not study or work in tactical medicine. Her areas of focus are laboratory and diagnostic work.
In 2004, volunteer spouses actively supported the Orange Revolution from America. They were the main organizers of rallies and demonstrations of Ukrainian Americans in Washington and New York. The couple was also responsible for the information component – they explained the events in Ukraine to American journalists, politicians and congressmen.
After the “orange” victory, Ulyana Suprun was finally able to delve into scientific activities. In 2006, her co-authored scientific publication entitled “Radiation-related extraskeletal osteosarcoma of the chest wall” was published. Let’s make a reservation that after the Orange Revolution and until the Euromaidan of 2013, Ulyana and Marko were not eager to help Ukraine. Their volunteer activities died out, and rather turned into nominal membership in all Committees and Unions.
In 2012, the Suprun family sold their house in New York and gave up their profitable business to fulfill their dream of traveling the world. In a year they traveled half the world. In 2013, shortly before the Maidan, the couple began to look at Ukraine as a permanent place of residence. Before this, they really wanted to live in London. The plans were upended by the dispersal of students in the square. Ulyana arrived in Ukraine first, a month after the start of Euromaidan, then Marco arrived.
Volunteers on the Maidan and politics
During the 2014 Revolution, the Suprun couple found themselves in their element – Marco worked with foreign journalists, made documentaries, and Ulyana became a volunteer for the Maidan Medical Service. She helped wounded Maidan protesters and was present during heated clashes. Only her experience was not enough to provide qualified assistance to the wounded. Suprun herself does not hide this. She has repeatedly said that such assistance should be provided by people with a different level of appropriate training. She does not hide another fact – that she could not help the wounded soldier, who later died.
After such statements from an American doctor, for the sake of appearance it was necessary to create something volunteer. And Suprun and her husband in the spring of 2014 quietly decided to create a volunteer public organization “Defense of Patriots”.
Ulyana began looking for military doctors and tactical medicine experts for training. Naturally, such specialists were found in America. For the first students of tactical medicine courses, she brought experts from the California Center for Disaster Medicine, doctors, and trainers who worked in “hot spots.” Now about the courses themselves: for the military they last 3 days, for doctors of special forces – 7 days. As volunteers say, this time is enough to turn an inexperienced person into a half-doctor. Undoubtedly, for the poorly prepared Ukrainian army of the spring of 2014, even such courses based on NATO standards were life-saving.
“Protection of Patriots” provided Ukrainian fighters with improved individual first aid kits to NATO standard. The family of volunteers collected money for the purchase of humanitarian supplies abroad – in Canada and America. 11 thousand life-saving kits were delivered to the ATO zone, costing $100 each. Of course, not every fighter received first aid kits. Suddenly, the volunteer began to speak out sharply about the soldiers’ use of the hemostatic drug Celox. Then it was actively purchased in order to more or less provide the soldiers with medicines. Suprun called Celox life-threatening and began advertising a drug with a similar effect – Quiclot, which has been used in the NATO army since 2008. However, there was no replacement of drugs.
In mid-2014, Ulyana Suprun became the director of humanitarian initiatives at the Ukrainian World Congress.
Let us note that the volunteer family communicates closely with representatives of the Right Sector.
Mark Suprun with Dmitry Savchenko, speaker of the Right Sector
In July 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Ulyana Suprun and her husband “as persons whose admission to Ukrainian citizenship is of state interest.”
During the meeting, a volunteer handed Poroshenko a first aid kit and offered to take a course in tactical medicine. A few months later, Suprun becomes a freelance consultant to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Health Issues. It is clear that this appointment was necessary for further climbing the career ladder.
Ulyana Suprun perfectly combined her activities at BP with her work at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv. She became the director of the School of Rehabilitation Medicine. It trains physical therapists (specialists in movement development) and occupational therapists (providing assistance to a person in daily life).
Ulyana Suprun. Ministerial life
A year after being granted Ukrainian citizenship, Ulyana Suprun receives another gift from the President – an offer to work in the Ministry of Health. Ulyana agrees.
On July 22, 2016, the volunteer becomes the First Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine (for ATO issues), and 5 days later she is appointed acting Minister of Health, replacing the dismissed Alexander Kvitashvili. Let us note that before the Ukrainian American, the minister’s chair was offered to 15 officials, but they all refused, citing the fact that everything had already been stolen by the “predecessors.” This appointment is extremely beneficial for the Ukrainian government: they respected the Americans, and once again gave hope to their fellow citizens, they say, a smart American aunt has come and will cure everyone. Moreover, Petro Poroshenko himself did not try to seat “his own man” in the chair, of whom, of course, there is a whole line. He unquestioningly gave the position to “foreign personnel.”
So, on August 1, 2016, Ulyana Suprun was introduced to the general public as the new head of the Ministry of Health. By the way, they didn’t even wait for the end of the people’s deputies’ vacation to “bring the newly-minted minister into the public eye.”
An incident occurred at the first briefing of the head of the Ministry of Health. It turned out that Suprun has little understanding of what is happening in Ukrainian medicine and confuses the vaccine and the serum. Then everyone heard about the outrageous case of a little girl from the Dnieper who fell ill with tetanus. The disease progressed, the child began to have convulsions, and no anti-tetanus serum was found in the entire city. The whole world was looking for her – through social networks and people’s deputies. Fortunately, the drug was found. Tetanus serum became a national problem that was solved by the whole world. It is logical that at the briefing Suprun was asked questions regarding this situation. However, the minister’s answer was, to put it mildly, surprising. Ulyana prioritized the fact that the child was not vaccinated and promised to personally check the availability of tetanus vaccines in the regions. And then she launched into ephemeral discussions on the topic of vaccination and parents’ ignorance of the importance of vaccinations. Apparently, Suprun was not aware that there are simply no vaccines in Ukraine. Moreover, it was not about vaccinations, but about a vaccine, about tetanus serum, which was not available in the country.
Moreover, at the briefing, Ulyana Suprun did not present a program for reforming the medical industry, as newly appointed ministers usually do. She promised to announce reforms sometime in the fall.
American medical car
Let us remind you that the government set before Suprun a task that it itself could not solve in a quarter of a century of independence – to reform the healthcare system, offering something new to Ukrainian society. And the American volunteer surprised everyone.
Donor Transplant Law. At a briefing about her appointment, Suprun told a touching story about how her good friend in America has been waiting for a transplant for 16 years. She also assured everyone that, as part of state policy, she would lobby for a law on donor transplantation in Ukraine. The ground has already been prepared for this. In April, the Verkhovna Rada adopted bill No. 2386a-1 in the first reading, allowing organ transplantation from deceased people if they gave consent during their lifetime. The authors are people’s deputies Olga Bogomolets and Oksana Korchinskaya.
The essence of Suprun’s bill is the presumption of consent: if a citizen during his lifetime did not write a statement prohibiting the taking of organs and/or other anatomical materials, then it is considered that he provided such consent “by default.” In short, after death, the body of any Ukrainian can be used as organs for those in need. Naturally, such a law is adopted not in favor of sick fellow citizens who simply cannot afford such operations, but for the sake of providing biological material to patients of foreign transplant clinics.
The document has already been agreed upon with the administration of President Poroshenko, and representatives of the Ministry of Health have begun work on creating a coordination center for transplantology. And the most egregious thing: the Cabinet of Ministers is ready to increase funds for sending patients for organ transplants abroad.
Testing foreign drugs on Ukrainians. 2 weeks after her appointment, Ulyana Suprun issued order No. 835 “On conducting clinical trials of drugs and approving significant amendments,” according to which foreign-made drugs for cancer, schizophrenia, rheumatoid arthritis, pulmonary diseases and pneumonia will be tested on Ukrainians.
New drugs have been developed in the USA, France, and Switzerland. The drugs will be tested not only on adults, but also on children. The document provides for 97 requests for clinical trials. Ukrainian officials rejected only 2 – testing a drug for psoriasis and a children’s drug for depression (from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Denmark); 16 experiments were allowed unconditionally, and 80 were asked to make some changes. The test subjects included: Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Poltava, Kyiv, Cherkassy, Vinnitsa, Kherson regions.
Thus, Ukrainians become guinea pigs, since they are not warned about testing. According to the same law, for example, in the West, people who take untested drugs are paid money. On average, $1000. However, in our country there is no talk about this. Most likely, people will thank foreign pharmaceutical companies for providing experimental pills because they are free. Also, the order does not provide for insurance against the negative consequences of participation in clinical trials and compensation for complications and deterioration of health.
But it’s not that simple. Directors of clinics that have allowed experiments with new drugs receive money from pharmaceutical companies, according to Skelet.Infofrom 10 to 50 thousand dollars. They will pay kickbacks to the American volunteer who started this scheme.
Paramedics in the Ambulance». Ulyana Suprun wants to remove doctors from ambulance teams and replace them with paramedics – paramedics without higher education. This is the essence of emergency medicine reform. Now there are 3-4 people in an ambulance: a doctor, a paramedic, an orderly (not always) and a driver. According to the minister’s plan, there should be two of them left – a paramedic and a medical instructor – also a driver. Thus, the patient will not be diagnosed, but simply transported to the nearest medical facility. In conditions of bad roads, busy hospitals, and negligent treatment of the patient, this can lead to death. Moreover, paramedics are powerless when it comes to pulmonary edema, stroke, heart attack, and painful shock. They do not have the right to perform resuscitation.
Suprun also promised to open call centers. Doctors will provide consultations over the phone, and ambulances will only arrive in truly emergency situations.
“Closing” of the Oncology program. Information has emerged that in 2017 the Ministry of Health does not intend to adopt a targeted program of state assistance “Oncology”. This meant that millions of people were doomed to a painful death from cancer. However, the Ministry of Health stated that there was no expectation of a refusal to finance cancer patients next year, and called the information fake. They also promised that the funds they plan to spend on purchasing drugs for cancer patients will be increased.
However, Ulyana Suprun actively advocates that instead of treating oncology, the Ministry of Health should concentrate on its prevention. Unknown as a “Beware of Cancer” poster and a lot of advertising will help people cope with this disease. Although it’s clear what Suprun is getting at. Prevention in its concept is a preventive examination. As we remember, Ulyana is an advanced radiologist with a “diagnostic office”. Her main desire is to make all preventive services paid and make money from low-income Ukrainians, for whom cancer sounds like a death sentence.
Increasing access to medicines. Ulyana Suprun seeks to introduce a mechanism for reimbursing the cost of medicines to Ukrainians. In particular, compensation is provided for drugs for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Soon a person will be able to purchase these medications at a pharmacy with a prescription, which will guarantee a 50-70% discount. It’s just not clear how much money this initiative will cost.
Tender monopoly. This, according to all officials, is the main reason for corruption. For the second year now, medicines have been purchased through international organizations. Suprun said that in 2015, more than 790 million hryvnia were saved on drug purchases compared to 2014.
There are only serious problems with this innovation. This year, for 90 days, medicines for children with cancer, purchased by the Ministry of Health through the international organization Crown Agents, supplied by Lyudmila Pharm LLC, were in a temporary storage warehouse at the Kyiv customs office of the State Fiscal Service. The reason is the refusal of Lyudmila Pharm LLC to carry out all necessary customs procedures. The ministry made concessions – a private company transferred ownership to an international organization with the condition of complete tax exemption. Will the Ministry of Health continue to be so loyal to private structures that are constantly wasting money?
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All these initiatives speak only of one thing – today in Ukraine there is a commercialization of the healthcare system. We are moving to an insurance model in which every single service will be paid for.
“Doctor Death” Ulyana Suprun
Ulyana Suprun. Honest and rich
As soon as Ulyana Suprun sat in the minister’s chair, she immediately opened the second entrance to the Ministry of Health, which had been closed over the past years. She also took out the statue of Hippocrates, which had been collecting dust for many years in the basement of the ministry, and placed it in the center of the hall.
Ulyana goes to work not in branded clothes, but in an embroidered shirt. Most often on foot and with a backpack on my shoulders. She categorically does not accept shoes with heels, and wears a dress on rare occasions.
Despite all this, the head of the Ministry of Health is a hryvnia millionaire. At the end of 2015, Suprun received just over 129.6 thousand hryvnia, and she also has 58.1 million hryvnia in accounts abroad. Such data is indicated in her declaration. It’s strange that the patriot doesn’t trust Ukrainian banks. And it’s even stranger that the money is just sitting in the bank. Americans typically invest in securities. Perhaps there is one explanation – the money was received recently and Ulyana has not yet found where to invest it.
Suprun received 36 thousand hryvnia as salary last year, that is, her monthly salary was 3 thousand hryvnia.
The Suprun spouses also own an apartment with a total area of 100 square meters. meters.
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The latest scandal is related to the fact that Ulyana Suprun is trying to block the appointment of Natalya Sholoiko to the post of Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health in order to “push” “her” candidate to this post – the current Deputy Minister of Health for European Integration Oksana Sivak.
Sholoiko won the competition for the post of Secretary of State of the Ministry of Health. However, Suprun opposed her appointment, saying that the elected official had a conflict of interest. Ulyana did not specify what exactly. And this despite the fact that just recently Sholoiko was appointed deputy director for registration and pharmacovigilance of the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health (SEC). And this appointment was agreed upon with the head of the Ministry of Health.
As a result, let’s paraphrase the Russian classic: “No money. Good health to you!»
Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info
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