A strange story occurred in Drohobych, a town of 70 thousand people in the Lviv region. Almost three years ago, the local hospital decided to buy a magnetic resonance imaging scanner (MRI). The city council was quick to allocate over UAH 49 million from the local budget, the supplier was found in no time, and by the end of 2022, the MRI was supposed to scan the first patients.
Yet, as of May 2025, the MRI has not started functioning in the hospital. NGL.media tried to find out why it has not happened and who will bear responsibility for it.
This investigation has become possible thanks to the participants of the NGL.media community, who have access to special content and possibilities.
The agreement for procuring the magnetic resonance imaging scanner (MRI) at the cost of over UAH 49 million was signed by the Drohobych City Hospital No. 1 in November 2022. The only participant, and thus, the winner of the tender, was “Medservicegroup”, a company from Kyiv. According to the executed agreement, in the subsequent month and a half – by the end of 2022 – this company had to supply, install, and launch the MRI system.
However, everything went wrong almost immediately.
Three days before the end of this agreement, Andrii Kotsiuba, the Director General of the hospital, signed an additional agreement with the “Medservicegroup”, by which the deadline for the commission implementation was extended first for two months, and then for ten more months – by the end of 2023. It turned out that the hospital merely didn’t have suitable premises to install the MRI.
At the same time, contrary to the agreement, which envisaged the payment only after the installation and launching of the MRI, in March 2023, the Director General of the hospital signed the act of transfer and acceptance of the MRI and the “Medservicegroup” was paid UAH 49.05 million from the city budget.
As of May 2025, the MRI system, which was paid for more than two years ago, has not yet been installed in the Drohobych hospital.
They paid the money for the MRI but didn’t manage to find a place for it
At the end of 2024, this issue attracted the attention of the police, which initiated a pre-trial investigation pursuant to p. 5 of Art. 191 of the CCU (misappropriation or embezzlement of property in especially large amounts through abuse of office), which envisages up to seven years in prison. Two months later, this story was publicly disclosed, so Volodymyr Chuba, the head of the health care department of the Drohobych city council, had to admit that the MRI, paid by the city budget, had been kept in the supplier’s storage in Kyiv for over two years.
Meanwhile, to have their MRI, the patients of the Drohobych hospital still have to use the services of the private clinic, situated next to the administrative building of the hospital.
The private clinic, providing the MRI services, is situated on the premises, belonging to the municipal hospital (a photo by NGL.media)
As per the words of Chuba, the reason for the absence of the MRI in the hospital was the absence of suitable premises and the shortage of electric energy. They seem to be preparing some special premises, but in the last two years, only 35–40% of the “preparatory work” have been completed. Volodymyr Chuba assured that approximately by May-June of this year, the MRI will have been installed, but he didn’t disclose the cost and performer of these “preparatory works”.
Volodymyr Chuba from the Drohobych city council claims that the decision to procure the MRI system was taken because it had been demanded by the Ministry of Health This refers to the Resolution of the Ministry from 2020, which envisaged obligatory availability of the MRI in multidisciplinary intensive care hospitals of level II. The Ministry took another similar resolution in May 2022, after the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion . Since the act of transfer and acceptance was signed in March of 2023, the hospital officially complied with the norms of the Ministry of Health. The problem is that more than two years have passed since that moment, but in reality, the hospital still does not have the MRI.
Andrii Kotsiuba, the Director General of the Drohobych City Hospital No. 1, also refused to give his comments and redirected this issue to Olena Masley, his deputy in economic matters.
In the conversation with NGL.media, Olena Masley claimed that they had not rushed to prepare the premises for the MRI because, previously, they had lacked electric energy. However, within the two years since the procurement of the MRI, the hospital administration managed only to execute a new agreement with the electricity supply company and develop the design and estimate documentation for the renovation of the premises. Why was it not done before – this is the question Masley couldn’t answer.
As a result, the tender for the premises reconstruction, with an estimated cost of over UAH 5 million, was announced by the hospital only one week ago, on May 13, although in February, the city council assured that the preparation of the premises “had been completed by 35–40%”.
The secret MRI system which nobody has seen
In February 2025, after the story with the MRI was publicly disclosed, the deputies of the Drohobych city council organized a commission to find everything out. However, there was no need to go to Kyiv where, according to the Director General of the hospital, the MRI system had been kept in storage for two years — it was brought to Drohobych. As per the words of Marta Slotylo, the head of the commission of deputies, the “Medservicegroup” LLC, the supplying company, suddenly declared that it was not ready to bear responsibility for keeping this equipment any longer.
NGL.media didn’t succeed in getting the comments of the “Medservicegroup” LLC. The owner of the contact phone number, indicated in the recent agreements, denied the fact that this number belonged to the company and refused to give any comments.
However, the Drohobych deputies have not seen the MRI yet. “We have seen only the marked boxes which we have not unpacked yet. They have been immediately moved for storing to other premises, not adjacent to the hospital,” Marta Slotylo said in the conversation with NGL.media.
At the beginning of April, the NGL.media journalists decided to check personally whether the MRI had, in fact, been brought to Drohobych, in which conditions it was being kept, and where the hospital intended to install it. Yet, Olena Masley, the Deputy Director General in economic matters in the hospital, refused to show the MRI and the premises.
Meanwhile, the private MRI flourishes
The mark sign with the advertisement of the private MRI, installed next to the administrative building of the hospital (a photo by NGL.media)
In reality, the patients of the Drohobych City Hospital No. 1 have had the possibility to get their MRI done for several years now — however, they have been doing it in the private clinic, situated in one of the buildings of the same hospital. The “Modern Diagnostic Systems” LLC leased these premises as far back as March 2019, and in June 2022, the hospital administration extended this lease for five more years. The cost of the services of the private MRI is within the range from UAH 1,300 to 11,600.
As per the words of Volodymyr Chuba, the head of the health care department of the Drohobych city council, these premises had once been specially prepared, but now they decided not to install the MRI, bought with the budget money, in it. “This building is separate from the hospital, it is inconvenient for both doctors and patients […] The MRI should be inside the hospital,” Volodymyr Chuba said in the conversation with NGL.media.
It should be noted that the complex of buildings of the Drohobych City Hospital No. 1 consists of a dozen different buildings, and the building with the private MRI is situated 30 m from the administration of the municipal hospital.
The author Maksym Pikho, editor Oleh Onysko, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Viktoria Demchuk