From 1 September 2026, updated Licensing Conditions for the conduct of medical practice, established by Resolution No. 813, came into force in Ukraine. The key innovation concerns power supply: all healthcare institutions, including dental clinics and individual entrepreneurs (Sole Proprietors / FOP), are required to have verified backup power sources. Without a documented record of autonomy, a clinic risks failing to obtain a licence or losing its existing one. In essence, what in 2022 was a competitive advantage and a marketing move to retain patients has, by 2026, become a basic regulatory requirement.
From competitive advantage to mandatory condition
The transformation took place against the backdrop of years-long blackouts and systematic power outages that have become the norm for Ukrainian business. If four years ago installing a generator and an UPS was perceived as an investment in customer loyalty, today it is a matter of the legitimacy of medical activity itself. Resolution No. 813 leaves no room for interpretation: autonomy must be confirmed, not merely declared. For dental clinics in the mid-price segment, this means a direct increase in operating costs that must be factored into the price of a visit even before the start of the winter season.
Technical requirements: why a “cheap generator” won’t cut it
Svitlana Khlebas, a member of the Coordination Council of the public organisation “Association of Dentists of Ukraine”, emphasises that the output signal waveform for medical equipment must be an exclusively pure sine wave. A distorted signal causes overheating of electric motors, processor malfunctions and critical measurement errors. Voltage spikes can instantly render X-ray machines, radiovisiographs, digital scanners and laser devices inoperable. That is precisely why budget generators, common in small business, are unsuitable for dental clinics: industrial-grade equipment with the corresponding filters and stabilisers is required.
The economics of autonomy: +20% to unit cost amid a shrinking client base
Additional equipment — UPS units, generators, fuel reserves — adds around 20% to the unit cost of treating a patient in mid-price-segment clinics. This is a significant burden, especially given that the client base in major cities is shrinking: some residents of Kyiv and other million-plus cities have moved abroad or to safer settlements. A paradox is emerging: clinics are forced to increase capital and operating spending on energy autonomy at precisely the moment when their revenue is falling due to a reduced patient flow. For sole-proprietor dentists working alone, such a rise in costs can be critical.
Context: staff shortages and winter challenges
The regulatory tightening coincides with a period when the Ukrainian healthcare system is already suffering an acute shortage of medical professionals. The war has led to a mass exodus of staff, and every clinic that loses its licence due to non-compliance with technical requirements deprives the market of yet another practising specialist. At the same time, the approaching winter, with forecast blackouts, makes the question of backup power supply not abstract but a daily operational reality. According to RBC-Ukraine estimates, autonomy at the start of the season is becoming one of the key factors in the survival of small medical businesses.
