Experience from Ukraine – for Strengthening Lithuania's Health System
Three teams of Lithuanian medical professionals have already returned from internships at medical institutions in Ukraine. All participants brought back invaluable experience and insights. Now, the goal of the Ministry of Health is to unite all parts of the country's healthcare system—municipalities, state institutions, medical facilities, and business organizations—for the joint preparation of Lithuania's health system for mobilization and external threats.
"In strengthening the health system’s resilience to threats, we rely on successful cooperation between the public, non-governmental, and private sectors. Various institutions have joined forces in the preparation efforts: state medical institutions, the non-governmental organization Blue/Yellow, and private insurance brokers and companies that agreed to ensure the safety of medical professionals. This reflects the maturity of all of us—representing different organizations—working together toward a common goal," said Minister of Health Marija Jakubauskienė.
By organizing the internships of Lithuanian medical teams in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Dnipro regions to gain practical knowledge, the Ministry of Health aims to prepare groups of medical professionals across Lithuania who can share their experience with colleagues on how to operate in extreme situations, during crises, or under wartime conditions.
Medical teams from the Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Kaunas regions — consisting of trauma surgeons, general surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses — have already taken part in a two-week internship in southeastern Ukraine. Also joining the mission were the head of the Emergency Medical Services, Dainius Paliulionis, and the director of the Center for Health Emergency Situations, Agnė Sviklaitė.
Representatives of the private sector contributed to ensuring the safety of participants during internships carried out under dangerous conditions. With the mediation of the insurance brokerage company Perlo draudimo brokeris, the medical team traveling to Ukraine for the internship was insured at the expense of BTA Insurance. The insurance company covered what once seemed uninsurable, and the brokerage firm found a service that once seemed impossible to secure. Such insurance services had never before been offered in Lithuania. Therefore, the companies had to develop unconventional solutions, assess unprecedented risks, and find a way to protect the people who are risking their lives to help others.
“This was not a standard insurance matter. This time, we were talking about a person going to help others in a war zone and how to ensure their safety in case of an accident. For us, this was not so much a business decision as a human commitment. We looked for a solution where many hadn’t even tried because we understood—if we can contribute, we must do it. This case reminded us that even in the insurance field, the most important decisions are sometimes guided not by numbers, but by values,” said Nerijus Giedraitis, head of the company UADBB Perlo draudimo brokeris.
“We are glad to contribute to the Ministry of Health’s initiative by providing medical professionals with the opportunity to undertake internships in Ukraine. Our role in this mission is important: to ensure that those traveling to Ukraine feel more secure. This is a relationship built on trust, which we highly value,” said Tadeuš Podvorski, director of the Lithuanian branch of the insurance company BTA.
Halfway through the medical internships, the Ministry of Health is organizing a strategic session called “Experience from Ukraine,” aimed at capturing the experiences of the medical professionals who participated in the internships and using this knowledge to plan the implementation of infrastructure, management, and training concepts for preparing the health system for external threats.
Invited to the session are medical professionals who worked during the internships in Ukraine, leaders of the country’s medical institutions, the Lithuanian Association of Municipalities, representatives from the National Crisis Management Center, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the head of the Emergency Medical Services, and the director of the Center for Health Emergency Situations. This is the first step toward applying the practical knowledge gained by medical professionals in Ukraine.
The entire medical internship process is organized by the Ministry of Health, logistics are managed by the non-governmental organization Blue/Yellow, and safety is ensured by the companies Perlo draudimo brokeris and BTA Insurance.