Battle for the maternity hospital: who wants the capital's Perinatal Center?

The capital's healthcare sector is in turmoil again. This time, it's not because of abuses in tender procurement (which probably surprises no one anymore), but due to claims against the management of the Kyiv Perinatal Center—the city's largest specialized facility. UNN looked into the situation.

Merger or takeover?

A large-scale medical reform is underway in Ukraine, within which approaches to financing, the provision of medical care, and the overall medical landscape of the country have changed—a capable network of medical institutions is being built. This kind of optimization of the hospital network has also affected Kyiv. In particular, maternity hospitals, most of which have become departments within multidisciplinary hospitals. However, a city of millions could not be left without a specialized facility—so it was decided to merge one of the most powerful maternity hospitals—Maternity Hospital No. 5—with the Perinatal Center, which functioned on the basis of Maternity Hospital No. 7. 

The logic of such a merger seems quite obvious and justified: the Perinatal Center dealt with premature births and pathologies specifically related to pregnancy, while one of the main specializations of Maternity Hospital No. 5 was extragenital pathology (diseases not directly related to pregnancy but which can affect its course and the condition of the fetus). Two strong centers with experienced specialists and a powerful medical base, whose merger under the reform conditions gave hope for the creation of a powerful center for providing high-class services.

In fact, that is exactly what happened. In 2024, these two institutions formed a single Perinatal Center with two branches. Dmytro Govseiev, who previously managed Maternity Hospital No. 5, became the director of the merged center, while Viktoriia Bila—who managed the Perinatal Center before the merger—received the position of medical director.

It follows from the decision of the Kyiv City Council that the merger of medical institutions was preceded by meetings of labor collectives, which supported the unification.

Medical teams were preserved—no staff reductions occurred. Doctors from both institutions (134 doctors from the Perinatal Center and 122 from Maternity Hospital No. 5) moved to the single structure of the merged Center. The same happened with the nursing staff. Optimization only affected administrative and economic positions that were duplicated in the two separate institutions. 

Almost all women in the capital who give birth prematurely end up at what is now the country's largest Perinatal Center. Here, they nurse "early birds" weighing from 500 grams. People come here in cases of ultra-complex pathologies; a modern treatment direction has been implemented here—fetal surgery, which allows for the correction of fetal pathologies while still in the mother's womb. After the merger, a pediatric surgery department opened at the Perinatal Center—for the first time directly within a maternity hospital. The facility offers a whole range of additional services—from high-comfort rooms to "home" births within the facility's environment.

Today, the center is a modern, highly specialized institution providing Level III perinatal care. During this time, a modern, technologically equipped operating room has begun functioning here

As Dmytro Govseiev said in one of his interviews, the institution emphasizes providing a full and continuous cycle of pregnancy management services. But in the same interview, the doctor points out: "The merger went easier than the work is going now." Behind this phrase, said in passing, lies a whole story that appears to be an attempted raider takeover of a successful medical institution.

When success breeds problems

As it turned out, despite the fact that the institution is developing successfully and handles almost half of the births in the capital, questions are being raised about it. And that would be fine—controlling structures, such as the Department of Health of the Kyiv City State Administration or the permanent commission of the Kyiv City Council on health issues, have the right and duty to ask questions, check, analyze, and assist in improving operations. Right now, by the way, an audit is underway at the institution, the results of which will determine future decisions.

Notably, the director of the Perinatal Center, Dmytro Govseiev, emphasizes the need to wait for the results of the audit. But in parallel, a public attack is unfolding against him and the institution.

The first noticeable pressure began at the end of 2025, when statements about the "raider" Govseiev destroying the institution began to appear in the media space. But such statements proved insufficient, and allegations of "shadow" cooperation with a private company appeared in the media. This concerned the company "Medlife Plus," which, according to our information, acted as a sub-tenant of premises in the Perinatal Center. It should be noted here that a municipal institution has the right to lease out vacant premises. The profile of the then-tenant "NDI Zhyttia" met the requirements—they provided medical services. But later, for some reason, likely to obtain additional profits, this company decided to sublease part of the premises—also to a medical firm, "Medlife Plus." The activities of the latter became a stumbling block and a basis for open criticism of Govseiev—allegedly, additional payments made by women giving birth at the Perinatal Center are funneled through this firm. This is a direct accusation of abuse, as most services at the center are paid for with funds allocated by the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU). The institution has the right to provide additional paid services—information about which, including prices, is available on its website. And the payment goes to the Center's account, not to a private company. If it happens otherwise and women pay for what the NHSU covers or to a private structure, it is a direct violation. 

The accusations look serious, wouldn't you agree? They were the basis for the unscheduled inspection of the Perinatal Center.

But this was not enough for the opponents. A fake account of a woman who had given birth, using a photo of a Russian woman, joined the case. The woman spoke about extortions and the indifference of one of the Center's doctors. However, she later deleted these posts when it became clear that, according to hospital records, she had not given birth there.

Dmytro Govseiev publicly declared the pressure. The doctor made an open statement and quite frankly described the reasons for the attacks.

From Govseiev's words, it follows that specific political forces and lobbyists for the interests of certain business structures may be behind such targeted actions.

In particular, he speaks of possible abuses by certain individuals from political circles during the transfer of humanitarian aid to medical institutions and pressure on hospital managers to sway them toward certain contracts.

"In parallel, information campaigns are launched that create pressure on the heads of medical institutions. This forms a closed circle: information pressure - decisions - profitable contracts. It is such lobbyist groups that are actively working in the medical field today," Govseiev stated.

And here the question arises: has the successful work of the Center and its powerful medical base become a choice morsel that someone wanted to seize? Or perhaps the old management of the Perinatal Center, dissatisfied with having to step into the shadows, is behind the attack?

Viktoriia Bila, whom we already mentioned, gives grounds to believe through her statements to the media that she is one of the participants, perhaps even the architect of the attack. The current medical director of the Perinatal Center and director of the institution before the merger gave an interview in which she enthusiastically says that, for example, in 2017, the Perinatal Center handled more than 7,000 births. Only such a statement does not correlate with the current state of affairs. Official statistics show that the birth rate in the capital has significantly decreased: if before the full-scale invasion the birth rate in the capital stayed at the level of 32-35 thousand babies per year, then after 2022 it stays at a level of just over 19 thousand. Despite this, the merged Perinatal Center handled 8,300 births in 2024, and 7,600 in 2025. So it turns out that in percentage terms, the number of births in the institution has even increased?

The institution emphasizes that the merger made it possible to strengthen the clinical base, create a powerful cluster with wide diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities, and improve the quality of medical services. But it seems not everyone likes this.