Mayor Klychko dismissed the head of the Department of Health Valentyna Hinzburg

Mayor Klychko dismissed the head of the Department of Health Valentyna Hinzburg

The mayor of Kyiv has dismissed the long-time head of the city’s Health Department, Valentyna Hinzburg. Doctors "on the ground" and concerned Kyiv residents, who faced the hospital "reform" in the city, have long been demanding this decision: they organized petitions and even held protests. However, until now, Vitaliy Klychko had not taken action against the leader of one of the most resource-intensive sectors in Kyiv—Hinzburg was an associate of Mykola Povoroznyk, the first deputy mayor of the capital. But now the situation has changed.

This is reported by Informator.

"Congratulations to the concerned and involved"

The dismissal of the long-time head of the Kyiv City State Administration’s Health Department was announced by former Kyiv City Council deputy, chairman of the board of the Charitable Foundation "Dnipro Initiative," Anatoliy Velimovskyi. In a Facebook post, he sarcastically remarked—saying, "oh, what sad news" awaits doctors and the public who have been seeking Hinzburg’s dismissal for years.

"On 13.09.2025, the head of the Kyiv City State Administration Health Department, Ms. Hinzburg, submitted her resignation. According to very reliable sources, this resignation has already been signed by the city mayor Vitaliy Klychko. So I congratulate all the concerned and involved," Velimovsky noted in his post.

According to the former Kyiv City Council deputy, he had known about Klychko’s intentions to dismiss Hinzburg for a long time. But he decided to wait until Tuesday, October 7, when Vitaliy Klychko opened the renovated surgical department of City Hospital No. 8. He hinted that Hinzburg was absent from the mayor’s entourage—although even the head of the Obolon Regional State Administration, Kyrylo Fesyk, was noticed in the delegation (his leadership is not friendly to the mayor of the capital by default).

Hinzburg is not in any photo from the opening of the surgical department in Hospital No. 8 the day before, even though Kyrylo Fesyk from the Obolon Regional State Administration is present. Photo: Kyiv City State Administration

"Things have shifted. Now a lot will depend on the new head of the department’s desire to maintain what is good in city medicine and to deal firmly with what Hinzburg has left behind," added Velimovsky, implying that by "what" he doesn’t mean the quality of hospital services.

Profiting from hospital repairs

There is an important political aspect here. The budget of the medical sector in Kyiv is perhaps the largest among all "budget" sectors, in 2025 it will be 6.046 billion UAH, compared to 5.53 billion a year earlier. These are colossal sums even by Kyiv standards. Therefore, there is also oversight/accountability—formally, to the city mayor and Kyiv City Council, and informally, to the mayor’s "right hand," the first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Mykola Povoroznyk. The biggest suspicions are raised regarding hospital repairs in Kyiv.

For example, the Nephrology and Dialysis Center started a renovation to unite several specialized institutions under one roof. According to Prozorro data, nearly 1.3 billion UAH was transferred to contractors for this. Kyiv Audit even reported financial losses and inefficient expenditures in 2022, but this had no impact on the contractor’s further fate.

But the most illustrative case is the renovation of the Kyiv Veterans Hospital. As Informator wrote, prices for its reconstruction were inflated by 2-2.4 times, with the price tag jumping to 1.2 billion UAH (for comparison: the complete restoration of Okhmatdyt’s buildings costs approximately 800-900 million UAH). Hinzburg’s name is closely linked to the scandalous hospital repairs with Povoroznyk’s name—he oversaw all the work.

Thus, Hinzburg’s dismissal takes away an important lever of city governance and financial flow from Klychko’s "right hand." Consequently, this will significantly affect the deputy’s own positions—according to unverified data, Vitaliy Klychko has already submitted documents for his dismissal to the Cabinet of Ministers (remember, this was demanded from the city mayor by Kyiv City Council faction leaders at the end of September).

What Kyiv residents blamed Hinzburg for

Valentyna Hinzburg headed the city’s Health Department since April 2017. The main direction of her activity in recent years was reorganizing the hospital system in the capital—for example, Hospital No. 17 was closed, the only one in the city that provided help to patients with complex polytrauma. For residents of Berezniaky, such reorganization of the children’s polyclinic resulted in the disappearance of an orthodontist from the institution, and a bit later, a whole series of other specialized doctors (cardiologist, ophthalmologist, etc.). The laboratory was also closed.

Kyiv residents repeatedly submitted petitions demanding Hinzburg’s dismissal. In 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, her actions were called "completely ineffective," and Klychko initiated disciplinary proceedings against her. However, the community never learned of its results—a month later, the mayor quietly closed the proceedings without publishing investigation results.

In March 2025, the city community once again made an attempt. The petition surprisingly quickly gathered votes, indicating that the "limit of fatigue" with the official had been crossed. The author of the appeal accused Hinzburg of "mockery, disrespect, and psychological pressure"—implying treatment of hospital teams, which she forced to "self-destruct," merge with other medical institutions, etc. This time, Klychko responded quite sharply to the petition, promising to dismiss the official, but only "if violations are established."