Fulfillment of President's Instructions: Ministry of Healthcare to review budget for guaranteed amount of free medical care

At the Government session of Kazakhstan a set of measures to implement the Address of the Head of State "A Fair State. One Nation. Prosperous society" was considered. Minister of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan Azhar Giniyat reported on the revision of approaches to financing of the medical industry.

In the Address to the People of Kazakhstan as of Sept. 1, 2022 the Head of State pointed out a chronic under-financing of health care industry, which resulted in the fact that the insured citizens do not receive the necessary amount of medical services.

The Minister of Healthcare informed that, reviewing the approaches, it is proposed to implement the following measures:

  • to work out the issue of financing the costs of the guaranteed volume of free medical care (about 200 billion tenge annually) and the state contributions to Mandatory Social Health Insurance for 15 privileged categories of the population;
  • to regulate by law the unification of financial flows of the Guaranteed Volume of Free Medical Care and Mandatory Social Health Insurance packages in order to simplify the administration of funds and to ensure their effective use.

"For the launch of voluntary health insurance in the context of the implementation of MSHI will be defined areas of medical care and lists of services to be covered by voluntary health insurance, as well as legislated and implemented imputed health insurance for foreigners, in particular migrant workers and foreign students," Giniyat said. 

In addition, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan gave an order to ensure the implementation of the national project aimed at meeting the needs of rural residents of medical care starting from 2023.

"For this purpose, we have made the appropriate calculations and determined the necessary measures to launch and implement the Modernization of Rural Health National Project. The main objective of the national project is: to reduce imbalances between urban and rural health care by providing all rural settlements with primary health care organizations in accordance with the regulations, as well as to increase the timeliness of emergency medical assistance to the rural population," the Minister of Health noted. 

The national project will provide:

  • construction of 655 primary care facilities, including the construction of new 228 facilities and 427 to replace the existing primary care facilities;
  • the organization of 32 multidisciplinary central district hospitals (MCDHs), including the improvement of 12 existing hospitals. And new multidisciplinary central district hospitals will be opened that will be able to provide emergency medical care for heart attacks, strokes, trauma and childbirth with the golden hour principle, as well as provide specialized and high-tech medical care without the need to travel to major cities, including through telemedicine and remote medical services.

The implementation of the national project will make it possible to:

  • reduce mortality from circulatory diseases by 20% among rural residents;
  • provide quality, emergency and high-tech medical care to more than 4 million rural residents.

"One of the main directions of the Address was to improve the system for training doctors. As part of the implementation of the President's instruction, we are considering the creation of multidisciplinary university hospitals and clinics at medical universities. In addition, we plan to increase the number of grants for residency by 70% annually within three years, from 1,700 in 2023 to 3,400 in 2025," Giniyat summarized. 

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