The Government approved a bill that regulates the age up to which the children admitted to the hospital can be accompanied by parents. The amendments made to the common mandatory health insurance program provide that the children younger than seven can be accompanied at the hospital during their stay. In the case of children with disabilities or seriously ill children, the age limit is 18, IPN reports.

Minister of Health Ala Nemerenco said that until now a child could be hospitalized together with his mother if this was younger than three. Now the family will decide who will accompany the child at the hospital – the mother, father, guardian, grandmother or grandfather. The persons with intellectual or severe locomotor disabilities can be admitted to the hospital together with the personal assistant.

The same bill extends the volume of ambulatory medical services by adding services to make and install individual oro-maxillo-facial and eye prostheses and narcological assistance services for children/teens who take and/or are dependent on drugs, alcohol and other psychotic substances.

Also, in the case of children with incurable diseases, the period for providing palliative care services can exceed 12 months.