The thesis is an examination of the issues of public administration in health care. The author's definition of public administration has been formulated in the field of health care, which is understood as a set of organisational and legal means of management and service activities of state bodies, local self-government bodies and other entities assigned public authority powers aimed at ensuring the realisation and protection of the right to health care, the development of healthcare institutions of all forms of ownership, control over the provision of quality medical services, guaranteeing equal conditions for obtaining medical care, protection of the rights of patients and medical carers, with the
aim of preserving and strengthening the health of the population.
The characteristics of the formation and development of public administration in the historical aspect are described, particularly taking into account the peculiarities of its legal and organisational principles, commencing from the times of the Kyiv State and
continuing to the present day. The main stages of the formation and development of public administration in the field of health care are the period of the Kyiv State (9th - 13th centuries); the Lithuanian-Polish period (14th century - first half of 17th century; the Imperial period (18th- 19th centuries); the Soviet period (20th century) and the period of independent Ukraine (the 1990s - until now). In the period of independent Ukraine, three stages can be observed, each having their own features of the legal and organisational principles of public administration, namely: from 1990 to 2000 - initiation of own health care legislation, reinforcement of international health care guarantees at the national level; retaining the previous organisational principles of public administration; from 2000 to 2020 - radical changes in public organisation in the field of health care, which affected organisational and legal principles; the modern period from 2020 to the present – continuing reforms in the field of health care but taking into account the needs of the healthcare system under martial law.
It has been established that to ensure efficient public administration in the field of health care, an effective mechanism for its implementation is necessary, which is understood as a system of interconnected elements, the interaction between which ensures the achievement of public interest in the outlined area - the preservation and strengthening of the health of the population. The independent elements of the mechanism of public administration in the field of health care include: principles of public administration in the studied area; the object, which is the health care system; legal acts that regulate relations in the field of health care; entities vested with public authority in the field of health care.
It has been substantiated, taking into account the concept of positive obligations of the state, that the healthcare system is the object of public administration in the field of health care, and is represented by a set of state authorities, local governments, other subjects of public administration, enterprises, institutions and organisations of various forms of ownership, individual citizens, in relation to whom and in certain cases through whom, the state carries out measures aimed at promoting, restoring or supporting the health of a particular individual and the health of the population as a whole.
It has been found that public administration of the healthcare system, in order to
achieve its goal, requires a combination of the principles of legal regulation in the healthcare sector and law enforcement principles on which the management and service activities of public administration entities are based, which include: general principles (the rule of law, legality, respect for human and citizen rights, the highest social value of man, cooperation between society and the state in the healthcare sector, the responsibility of the state for the state of public health, proper public administration, officialdom, proportionality, etc.); special principles (free choice of doctor, barrier-free and accessible medical services, professional autonomy of the doctor, etc.).
It has been determined that the legal regulation of public administration in the field of health care is carried out by a number of regulatory and legal acts, namely: the Constitution of Ukraine, Acts of Ukraine, international treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and subordinate regulatory and legal acts.
