Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - The coronavirus pandemic has forced governments around the world to pay special attention to the healthcare system, to feel the importance of the level of medicine in people's lives, the relationship between public health and successful economic development.

In recent years, significant reforms have been carried out in the healthcare system of Uzbekistan aimed at creating a modern system of medical care for the population, improving the quality of medical services, modernizing sanitary facilities and improving scientific and practical activities in this area.

An important place in ensuring the health of the population, the provision of health care, the prevention and treatment of various diseases, especially chronic ones, is traditional medicine, the quality, safety and effectiveness of which are confirmed in practice.

Over the past time, as a result of the measures taken, a legal framework has been formed in the field of providing services by traditional healers, the Association of Traditional Medicine of Uzbekistan has been created and priority conditions for the effective and safe application of the methods and achievements of traditional medicine, the main goals and directions of its development are determined.

In order to further improve the provision of traditional medicine services, mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of its methods, the consistent integration of traditional medicine in the modern healthcare system, and the professional development of specialists and other medical workers in this direction, a decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan was adopted on 10 April.

In accordance with the document, the Ministry of Health, together with experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), together with the Association of Traditional Medicine of Uzbekistan, the Tabobat Academy and interested organizations will develop a Concept for the Development of Traditional Medicine in Uzbekistan in 2021–2025.

In developing this Concept, special attention will be paid to its coordination with the implemented Concept of the Development of the Health System of the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2019–2025, the practical implementation of the recommendations and proposals provided for in the Strategy of the World Health Organization in the field of traditional medicine for 2014–2023, to progressive international institutional experience in the development of traditional medicine, ongoing analyzes and studies in this area.

The document also envisages the establishment on 1 May 2020 of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Traditional Medicine in the form of a state institution financed from the State budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan. At the same time, the Centers for the Development of Traditional Medicine will also be created in medical higher educational institutions and technical schools of public health named after Abu Ali ibn Sino.

The republican center will be the leading institution in the field of traditional medicine, and the multidisciplinary clinic of the Tashkent Medical Academy will be the clinical base for the training, retraining and advanced training of specialists in this field. Foreign experts will help organize the activities and subsequent work of regional centers.

For the cultivation of medicinal plants, selection and allocation of agricultural land will be carried out, on which mini-plantations will be created with their connection to the engineering and communications networks.

From 1 May 2020, traditional medicine rooms will be opened in state multidisciplinary medical institutions of the district (city), regional and republican levels, and non-state medical organizations.

The list of folk remedies of domestic natural and herbal origin recommended for the treatment of diseases using traditional medicine methods will be compiled by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan.