Court suspends election of rector of Odesa Medical University

The Odesa District Administrative Court has suspended the order of the Ministry of Health to hold a competition to fill the position of rector of Odesa National Medical University.

This was reported by Vitaliy Barvinenko, former head of the Odesa District Council, with reference to the court's ruling.

According to the ruling, which he made public, the court thus upheld the claim of the all-Ukrainian public organization Stop Corruption, which demanded that the admission of Yuriy Sukhin, the rector of the medical university, Levon Nikoghosyan, the former head of the health department of the Odesa City Council, Anatoliy Son and Ihor Shpak to the election be declared illegal. The organization demands that these people be excluded from the ballots in the rectorial election.

The court ruling, in turn, stipulates that the elections are suspended until the court decides whether these people should be excluded from the ballots or not.

Yuriy Sukhin, the head of the Department of Traumatology, Orthopedics and Military Field Surgery, took an active part in the struggle between the then rector of the university, Valeriy Zaporozhezhan, and the then Minister of Health, Iryna Suprun, who sided with the rector.

In July 2018, Uliana Suprun, who was acting Minister of Health, dismissed the rector of Odesa Medical University, Valeriy Zaporozhan. The reason for his dismissal was that Zaporozhan refused to let the Health Ministry commission in and provide it with the necessary documents for inspection.

Zaporozhan himself then went on sick leave and sued the Ministry of Health. At the same time, he appointed the current vice-rector Yuriy Bazhor as acting head of the university. The Ministry appointed Konstantin Aymedov as acting rector of Odesa National Medical University.

Later, the leaders of Zaporozhan's supporters and the ministry changed. And a protracted conflict began at the university. Subsequently, Valeriy Zaporozhan was re-elected as rector, but for some time he had a problem with registration due to lawsuits filed by his supporters. In particular, Yuriy Sukhin.

Anatoliy Son is the head of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Ihor Shpak is a professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Кирило Бойко