THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL TOURISM IN UKRAINE ; РОЛЬ ДЕРЖАВИ В РОЗВИТКУ МЕДИЧНОГО ТУРИЗМУ В УКРАЇНІ
Problem statement. Medical tourism, one of new directions of the tourist industry, promptly develops in the world in recent decades. Nowadays, it is already seen the growing number of countries which specialize in providing this type of service, that was caused by economic, social and other advantages. These are not always developed countries, but they are interesting to foreign patients by low-cost of medical care and high quality of providing medical services. Ukrainian medical tourism has recently begun to be the special direction. But there are questions on organization and policy implementation of governmental regulation in this branch of business activity. This is connected with necessity of streamlining of legal framework, economic and organizational basis, infrastructure upgrade, etc.Analysis of last researches and publications. The research of development problems of medical tourism in Ukraine, its influence on the development of countries and its regions, was devoted many scientific works of domestic authors, such as: V. Baiev, T. Bezverkhniuk, M. Bil, O. Bordun, I. Vakhovych, K. Didenko, V. Zhuchenko, V. Malimon, M. Malska, A. Postianyi, A. Romanova and others. But not all answers to questions on governmental regulation of the development of medical tourism are given in these scientific works.Nowadays, opinions on organization of medical tourism in the country are contradictory; methodology of strategic development of destinations of this direction is developed insufficiently. Incomplete means of governmental regulation do not allow to perform practically purposeful planning of sustainable development of medical tourism.The purpose of an article is identification of problems on implementation of the role of the state in the development of medical tourism and definition of necessary changes in regulatory framework, economic and social system in ensuring the regulating influence of the state on this type of business activity.Statement of basic materials. Nowadays, medical tourism is a specific type of the tourist industry which is between, at first, two various spheres - health care and tourism. Medical institutions of its development are medical centres and companies on providing tourist facilities. This type of tourism already brings a considerable part of profit to the budget of touristically developed countries and is extremely perspective for Ukraine in the question of European integration. Development of this industry will cause socio-economic growth of regions and will improve investment image of the country.As the main clause of development of medical tourism and its target point in Ukraine is quantity input of foreign tourists that will promote receipt of considerable financial flows to the country, it is necessary to carry out justification of functions of state authorities and their opportunities of regulation of this sphere.It is noted that medical tourism is the whole system of interrelated main basic and infrastructure institutes of the country which influence on the development of this direction and provide its competitiveness. Special legislation, in many countries, is developed on support of medical tourism, but this sphere practically is outside state policy in Ukraine.There are organizational and legal problems in the country, that have negative effect on development of medical tourism, because of imperfection of available enactments and absence of follow-up. Nowadays, there is no connection between healthcare institutions and travel agencies that considerably complicates the process of arrangement of the medical direction of the tourist industry. Certain slowdown of development of medical tourism in Ukraine is also connected with low-level of services, old infrastructure. The absence of specialized tour operators leads to cooperation with intermediaries that causes excess expenses and treatment process detention. Concerning public health facilities, one of the main problems is outdated plant, underfunding for acquisition of new equipment and insufficiency of highly professional personnel.It is also necessary to note that such fixed assets of regulation and influence of the state on activity of menage entities as licensing, grant of patent, certification, standardization and so forth need details in the context of development of medical tourism.Conclusions. Medical tourism provides outlook of socio-economic development of the country in tourist and medical spheres, creation of workspaces not only in the sphere of health care, but also in other industries. But real development of medical tourism is possible only with the assistance of the state, in particular, during solutions of following questions: 1. Improvement of normative legal documents with accurate distribution of powers, functions, duties and responsibilities of all participants of development process of medical tourism. 2. Ensuring interaction of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, in particular the Department of Tourism concerning development of medical tourism. 3. For the purpose to increase the attention of domestic public and private medical institutions to foreign patients, to develop and resolve organizational and technical issues of accreditation by analogy to JCI and ISO 9001. 4. Solutions of questions of issue of «the accelerated medical visa» to foreign citizens who arrive in Ukraine concerning medical tourism. 5. Creation of a system of medical insurance to people, who receive medical services within and beyond Ukraine. This is connected with risks which can arise during treatment and after it. 6. Creation of conditions for ensuring participation of representatives of Ukrainian health sector during international events of medical tourism for promoting of achievements and opportunities of domestic medicine. ; Наукова стаття присвячена теоретичному дослідженню ролі держави щодо розвитку медичного туризму в Україні. В роботі визначені основні передумови та проблеми становлення цієї галузі в нашій країні. Проведено аналіз літератури з питань регулюючого впливу держави на розвиток медичного туризму з погляду спеціалістів економічної та юридичної сфери.