Features of development and staffing of medical institutions within Eastern Galicia (1919-1939)

The article deals with the problem of organization and development of medical institutions network, as well as their staffing within Eastern Galicia during the second republic of Poland in 1919-1939. The study of this question has been quite fragmented given in Polish, Ukrainian and Soviet historiography. There have been no comprehensive studies in this direction. This research is mainly based on the documents of the Archive of New Acts collections in Warsaw and Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv, as well as the state archives of the Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. After analyzing archival materials the author has come to the conclusion that the management network of health protection consisted of three consecutive authorities: District Departments of Health, Public Health Departments of Lviv, Stanislaviv and Ternopil Voivodeships and the Ministry of Public Health. The last one was reorganized into the Department of Health Care under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The author also has found out that system of the health protection introduced by the Polish government within the territory of Eastern Galicia was characterized by a clear structuring, interconnectedness and a common goal. That goal was the ensuring of safety for the life and health of the local population before the threat of epidemic diseases. Its implementation included the development of the network of state and public medical institutions, which were engaged in the supervision of environment, construction standards, sanitary conditions of premises and personal hygiene, in the guardianship over sick and disabled people, as well as in the providing them with timely and qualified medical assistance. Local institutions cooperated with the Polish government in the fight against infectious and social diseases, conducted preventive vaccinations and controlled the selling of some products. The author notes that system of the health protection within Eastern Galicia had a number of shortcomings, which has significantly reduced its effectiveness during interwar period. Firstly, it lacked doctors capable of conducting administrative activities for its normal functioning. This situation was stipulated by both a relatively small number of appropriately qualified specialists and a ban for being on state posts to Ukrainian doctors. There was a constant shortage of nurses, midwives and dentists in Eastern Galicia, despite the work of Lviv University named after Jan Kazimir, as well as public schools for nurses and midwives. Secondly, the network of inpatient hospitals and ambulance stations was very poorly developed because of military devastation and lack of money. Thirdly, the high cost of medical services was also the reason of low demand for their. Even the creation of the Health Centers (some kind of outpatient clinic to low-income people) in the late 1920s was not able to improve the situation. These problems have remained unsolved until the Second World War and the transition of Eastern Galicia in the USSR.

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