MEDICAL TOURISM AS A DRIVER OF UKRAINE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY: PRE-WAR EXPERIENCE AND STRATEGIC GUIDELINES FOR THE POST-WAR PERIOD.

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of the article is to study the dynamics of medical tourism development in Ukraine in recent years before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, and also to identify the main directions of its recovery in the post-war period.

Materials and methods: The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines legal analysis, economic modeling, and elements of sustainable urban development research. The methodological framework includes systemic-structural and functional-legal analysis of Ukrainian legislation on healthcare, investment policy, and regional development, as well as empirical data on the state of medical tourism in the pre-war period. Analytical methods were used to identify relationships between the development of medical tourism and the resilience of urban environments under crisis conditions.

Results: The article analyses examples of successful implementation of public-private initiatives, in particular, the creation of Dnipro Medical Cluster. Particular attention is paid to the consideration of medical tourism as a factor in the formation of economic and legal resilience of Ukrainian cities. It is substantiated that the development of medical tourism has contributed to increasing the resilience of the urban environment to external crises. The article considers new challenges - ensuring access to medical services for internally displaced persons, organisation of rehabilitation of victims, emergence of the phenomenon of forced medical tourism.

Conclusions: The strategic guidelines for the development of medical tourism in the post-war period are proposed. It is concluded that the restoration and development of medical tourism in Ukraine has a double meaning - as an economic tool and as a means of ensuring the sustainability of urban systems in the period of post-war transformation. Implementation of the proposed measures will contribute not only to economic growth, but also to strengthening the resilience of Ukrainian cities as centres of medical, social and investment opportunities.