Recently, a delegation from Krakow, the cultural capital of Poland, visited Drohobych. Cooperation between the cities began with a partnership between local utilities – the Krakow Water Utility and the Drohobych Water Utility. Since the first days of the full-scale war, Krakow has been actively supporting Ukraine and the Drohobych community in particular in strategically important areas.
The delegation visited Drohobych with Piotr Zentara, Chairman of the Board of the Krakow Water Utility, and members of the Supervisory Board of the water utility Paweł Senderik, Kateryna Jachymska and Mariusz Szubra.
After an official reception of the delegation by the Mayor of Drohobych Taras Kuchma, the parties discussed projects already being implemented by the cities and outlined areas for further cooperation.
The meeting took place in the chamber of the Drohobych City Council, with the participation of Roman Shahala, Head of Drohobych Vodokanal, Volodymyr Kondziolka, Head of the Drohobych City Institute, Volodymyr Chuba, Head of the Health Department, Petro Sheviak, Head of the Education Department, Iryna Kushnir, Head of the Organisational Department, and representatives of the Department of Digitalisation, Information Policy and Communications.
During the meeting, the parties discussed cultural and educational cooperation and projects that could help Drohobych achieve energy autonomy.
Volodymyr Chuba, Head of the Healthcare Department, informed the guests about the implementation of the healthcare reform and the results achieved through the measures taken.
“Since the beginning of the implementation, we have focused on strengthening the material and technical base of our medical institutions. Now, two hospitals of the Drohobych community have joined the capable network of medical institutions published by the Ministry of Health, and Drohobych Hospital No. 1 has become the second institution in the region to provide a wide range of medical services in terms of capacity and workload,” , said Volodymyr Chuba.
As it turned out during the conversation, Poland has a similar system of financing the healthcare sector and had to overcome similar problems. Financing there is also based on the principle of “money follows the patient”, and in addition, the state has set limits on the number of medical services that can be provided monthly. This provokes long queues, while private medical practice is actively developing, where you can get certain medical services, have an operation, etc. quickly but at a high cost.
Petro Sheviak, Head of the Education Department, informed the guests about the network of educational institutions in the community and the ongoing educational reform.
The guests also noted similar problems in the reform of Polish education.
“We went through a very painful but necessary process of optimising small schools, which had low enrolment and were costly for the budget. Since state funding covered no more than 60% of the needs of the education sector, the rest was a burden on the local budget. That’s why it was a problem,”, said Piotr Zentara.
Polish partners are implementing many reforms with the support of the European Union, with the involvement of grant projects, and are ready to share their experience with Drohobych.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed the prospects for cooperation between educational institutions in Drohobych and Krakow. In particular, they talked about a Polish school operating in Drohobych and two Ukrainian schools in Krakow. These institutions can share experience, literature, exchange students, etc.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed the implementation of a large-scale and far-reaching project – the GIS (geographic information system of the territorial community), which is currently underway in Drohobych.