ReAct Europe at Ukraine ReHealth 2026: Building resilient healthcare in times of war
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2026-09-23
On 2–3 September, ReAct Europe took part in an international conference on the recovery and modernisation of Ukraine's healthcare system - Ukraine ReHealth 2026 - as part of its collaboration supporting Ukraine's National Action Plan on AMR. Over two days, ten panels covered topics ranging from sustainable hospitals of the future and international health partnerships to crisis preparedness and the challenges facing hospitals in frontline regions.
Audience at the stakeholder meeting Ukraine ReHealth. Photo: ReAct Europe.
Many discussions focused on how Ukraine’s health system has adapted to the realities of war. Speakers described how care for the wounded has changed as evacuation has become longer and more dangerous. More care now has to be given close to the frontlines, and patients are increasingly sent directly to the facility best equipped to treat them.
The importance of reliable data came up again and again, from electronic records that follow the patient along the evacuation chain to a unified system for collecting and learning from experience.
Hospital safety was another key theme, including practical tools for responding to missile and drone attacks. Speakers from frontline regions pointed out that Ukraine has opened 220 underground schools but only one official underground hospital.
Marta Dumanska, ReAct Europe at the ReHealth conference in Kiev, Ukraine. Photo: ReAct Europe.
For Marta, Project Coordinator at ReAct Europe, the conference showed how closely these issues are linked to antibiotic resistance:
“Severe injuries, long evacuation routes, repeated transfers between hospitals and damaged facilities all create conditions in which resistant infections can develop and spread.
It was inspiring to see how much work is going into making Ukraine’s health system more resilient.
Infection prevention and control and antibiotic resistance need to be part of that resilience from the start, because a hospital can only be truly safe if it is also protected against infections we can no longer treat.”
Armed conflict is widely recognized to worsen the spread of antibiotic resistance through disrupted logistics, destroyed infrastructure, overcrowded facilities and the difficulty of maintaining infection prevention practices. Many of the solutions discussed at ReHealth, such as fewer transfers, better shared data and safer hospitals, also strengthen the defences against resistant infections.
Informal discussions during breaks can spark new ideas and future collaborations. Photo: ReAct Europe
ReAct is grateful for the opportunity to take part in the conference and to connect with Ukrainian and international colleagues. We will continue working with our Swedish and Ukrainian partners, including through the new infection prevention and antibiotic resistance course “Safe care starts with us” delivered in collaboration with Zdorovi.
