Moldovan PM demands starting reform of state supervision of public healthcare system

Chisinau, 19 January /MOLDPRES/ – The reform of state supervision of public healthcare system was examined today during a working meeting at government, chaired by Prime Minister Pavel Filip, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.          

The prime minister said that this year had to begin with a number of significant social reforms, including healthcare. There was created a unit for implementation of reforms at last meeting of the government, in order to monitor and conduct them. Among the priorities of the government, it is included the reform of the state supervision of public healthcare system.

At Prime Minister’s demands, the Health Ministry submitted several proposals to reform the domain. According to experts, the reform was necessary in this sector for a long time, since the current system outdated and did not meet the people's needs and international requirements. The essential problems were enumerated, like the following: extremely big structure, duplication of functions with the National Food Security, fragmentation of funds on public health centers, low salaries.

Over the years, there have been several attempts to restructure the public health system, including regionalization of laboratories that can serve as a model for reforming public healthcare centers.

The prime minister pointed out that "in all reforms, it is very important to manifest to people what we want, how the reformed system will look like and how it will operate. Firstly, we should establish the desired pattern and then come up with restructuring and make the necessary investments."

Pavel Filip said that we should not be afraid of radical measures if they bore a positive impact for beneficiaries of the system.

The participants of the discussion were unanimous on the urgent need to reform the public healthcare system focused on prevention, promotion of healthy lifestyles, countering public health risks. The World Health Organization representatives supported the idea of ​​reforming the public healthcare system and said they would support the policy development in that field.

As a result of discussions, Prime Minister Pavel Filip instructed the Health Ministry to acquire all the proposals to reform the system, to expand the circle of participants in consultations and, in short notice, to submit to the government the final concept of state supervision of public healthcare system for approval.

(Editor M. Jantovan)