Health care in Ukraine

At the beginning of the third millennium Ukraine is facing deep changes and reforms in all spheres of political, economic and public life. These changes touch upon medicine as well, and health service in particular. The Constitution of Ukraine adopted on June 28, 1996 guarantees the rights of Ukrainian citizens to life, health protection, medical care and medical insurance, safe and healthy environment.

The present health service in Ukraine both preventive and curative was inherited from the former state. It was available to the whole population. It is an establishment and support of strong post graduate programs for training in family medicine, introducing insurance medicine, the creation of a wide network of private consulting rooms, dental and eye surgery, beauty parlors, etc. They are equipped with modern apparatus and devices, but their services cost a pretty penny for the majority of the Ukrainian population. Many people still go to the state hospitals and polyclinics for their medical needs.

The most distinctive feature of health service in our country is prophylaxis of different diseases, the early detection of the first signs of the disease. Much attention is paid to popularization of medical science among the population. For this purpose the press, cinema, radio and TV programs are very helpful.

The basic medical units in our country are rural, district, regional or municipal polyclinics. The hospitals have different departments, which specialize in the treatment of particular diseases. In case of emergency you may dial 103 for the ambulance to come, which operates day and night.

Special attention is paid to the health of mother and child. Maternity homes, Mother-and-Child Health Care Centres concentrate their efforts on the problems of Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology. These problems are especially acute now when the majority of our population lives under ecologically unfavorable conditions and the questions of demography are of deep national concern.

The practice of medicine is not static, but constantly changing. In some areas of medicine, especially treatment, new knowledge supplants old modalities very frequently. In addition the natural history of some diseases changes. Old diseases that were thought to have disappeared return and new diseases emerge.

A doctor in the modern world should develop the basic skills necessary to exclude serious illnesses, to diagnose early, to treat common health problems without expensive, sometimes invasive investigations and therapies, to manage chronic illnesses.

Ukrainian society needs citizens who are healthy, educated, motivated, and able to work for their country.

POST-TEXT ASSIGNMENTS

Exercise 6. Answer the questions to the text:

1. What does the Ukrainian Constitution guarantee?

2. How can the present day health service be described?

3. What is the most distinctive feature of health service?

4. What efforts are made for mother and child health care?

5. Does the practice of medicine change?

6. What are the basic medical units?

7. What kind of skills should a modern day doctor have?

Exercise 7. Give English equivalents of the following word combinations:

Гострі проблеми, спеціалізуватися на лікуванні, медичні потреби, звернути увагу, відмінна особливість, раннє виявлення, на додаток, широка мережа, здорове навколишнє середовище, охорона здоров'я, профілактичні та лікувальні, зосередитися на, розвивати навички, загальні проблеми зі здоров'ям.

Exercise 8. Divide the given words into the table:

Whole, inherited, sign, right, concern, effort, constantly, unfavourable, care, healthy, need, common, treatment, diagnose, distinctive, emerge, basic, operate, treat, practice, static, consulting, face, act, adopt, support, state, dial, considerable.

Noun	Adjective	Verb

Exercise 9. Match the terms with their definitions:

1. science	a. measures designed to preserve health (as of an individual or of society) and prevent the spread of disease
2. insurance	b. a learned power of doing something competently
3. prophylaxis	c. the way that you deal with or discuss something
4. treatment	d. knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation
5. skill	e. the act or process of discovering, finding, or noticing something
6. detection	f. an agreement in which a person makes regular payments to a company and the company promises to pay money if the person is injured or dies, or to pay

Exercise 10. Complete the sentences using the information from the text:

1. The most distinctive feature of health care is … .

2. The basic medical units in our country are … .

3. The majority of our population lives … .

4. Present day health care in Ukraine is both … .

5. The Ukrainian Constitution guarantees the rights to … .

6. People go to state hospitals and polyclinics for … .

7. Different hospitals specialize in … .

8. In case of an emergency … .

GRAMMAR IN USE

SIMPLE PASSIVE TENSES

To be + Past Participle

Пасивний стан (Pаssіve Vоісe) утворюється за допоміжного дієслова «tо be» у відповідному часі та особі та смислового дієслова у формі дієприкметника минулого часу.

Tense			Active Voice	Passive Voice
Simple		Present	The professor examines students.	Students are examined by the professor.
		Past	The professor examined the students yesterday.	The students were examined by the professor yesterday.
		Future	The professor will examine the students next week.	The students will be examined by the professor next week.

Exercise 11. Put questions to the underlined words:

1. The operation was performed successfully.

2. Medicines are compounded, dispensed and sold in pharmacies.

3. The organic acids are extracted from an aqueous solution of urine.

4. Prior to an injection of any vaccine, all precautions should be taken to prevent side effects.

5. This powder should be diluted with distilled water before making an injection.

6. AIDS is caused by infection with a virus called the human immunodeficiency virus.

7. An important work was carried out on the determination of anatomic weights.

8. Research work of many physiologists has given the possibility to estimate the role of vaccines.

Exercise 12. Form Participle II of the following verbs. Translate them:

To specialize, to cost, to create, to support, to inherit, to adopt, to guarantee, to introduce, to detect, to pay, to concentrate, to change, to develop, to disappear, to return.

Exercise 13. Change the following into Passive Voice:

1. The doctor examines the patients everyday.

2. The students saw a scientific film yesterday.

3. The drug caused the adverse effects.

4. The patients ordered the ointments at the chemist’s.

5. My friend broke his leg.

6. The doctor will discharge the patient from the hospital in two days.

7. Somebody called in a doctor.

8. The patients must shake this mixture before use.

Exercise 14. Translate the sentences using Passive Voice:

1. Ця хвороба виникла через недостатність вітаміну В.

2. Лікарям подякували за вчасну висококваліфіковану допомогу.

3. Лекцію по гістології будуть читати завтра.

4. Бактерії можна буде побачити лише за допомогою електронного мікроскопу.

5. Операцію закінчать о 10 годині.

6. Ряд різних процедур використовують для того, щоб поставити правильний діагноз.

7. Пігулки слід зберігати у щільно закритих контейнерах.

8. Пацієнту зробили внутрівенну ін’єкцію вранці.

Exercise 15. Open the brackets using the correct tense form:

1. The doctor (to write) a prescription when a short man (to open) the door and (to ask) for help.

2. The patient was restless, irritable; he (to suffer) from nightmares, and (to become) delirious.

3. On leaving the hospital, the man (to thank) the doctor who (to cure) him of his disease.

4. This shortsighted man (to lose) his spectacles. We (to look) for them everywhere, but still can’t find them.

5. The doctor (to study) the patient’s sensitivity to penicillin before the treatment (to begin).

6. He (to be) here five minutes ago, but you (to be out).

7. He (to work) a lot and (to want) to show his teacher that he (to improve) his knowledge in Biology.

8. The nurse already (to give) an injection of the nicotine acid.