CIS countries value Belarusian healthcare highly

The Belarusian healthcare system is valued highly in CIS member states, Yelena Bogdan, Chairwoman of the Central Office for Organizing Medical Care of the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry, told reporters on 20 February, BelTA has learnt.

The number of Ukrainian citizens who received treatment in Belarusian medical institutions went up 1.5 times in 2013. All in all, about 160,000 people from abroad were treated in Belarus last year. These services added $30 million to the budget.

The representative of the Health Ministry noted that Belarusian medical universities are rated highly among other such institutions in the CIS. Colleagues from other CIS countries borrow the best practices from Belarusian medical workers. For example Belarusian specialists worked in Kazakhstan to help set up a multilevel system of medical aid for mothers and children. “The introduction of such a system in Belarus has resulted in a low infant mortality rate (3.4 per thousand), which places us among such developed European countries as Austria, the UK and Switzerland,” Yelena Bogdan said.

Belarusian medics draw on the experience of the CIS member states, too. They have established close cooperation with several CIS national healthcare schools, in particular those of Russia and Ukraine. Such cooperation is necessary because the CIS countries have common objectives. With this in mind CIS experts are developing the strategy Health of the CIS Peoples. The draft document will be discussed by the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk from 20 to 21 February. Yelena Bogdan will also take part in this session.

“The development of this strategy is fully compliant with the Health 2020 policy which is being implemented by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe. A considerable part of the document is dedicated to preventive control, a healthy life-style and the improvement of the demographic situation,” Yelena Bogdan said.

The draft strategy Health of the CIS Peoples was approved at the 22nd session of the CIS Healthcare Cooperation Council in May 2013. Plans have been made to submit this document to the CIS Heads of Government Council in accordance with the established procedure after experts agree on all its provisions.