Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - At the National Chamber of Innovative Healthcare, a meeting was held with the head of the WHO Office in Uzbekistan, Lian Kuppens, at which the parties discussed the potential for developing cooperation.

The meeting was also attended by a specialist from the Representative Office of the World Health Organization Elena Tsoi, heads of departments of the National Chamber.

As noted by L. Kuppens, the WHO Representative Office in Uzbekistan in its work to support health care reforms is aimed at strengthening interaction with the National Chamber. For this purpose, first of all, it is necessary to establish a mutual exchange of information. To begin such an exchange, the head of the WHO Representative Office presented the main activities of this UN Office in the field of analysis of the current state of healthcare in Uzbekistan and recommendations for its improvement.

Since 2017, according to L. Kuppens, WHO experts, together with local specialists, have been working to analyze the situation in the healthcare sector of Uzbekistan. Moreover, in the absence of data in any direction, experts helped to model them, based on the experience of neighboring countries. As the analysis showed, a significant part of the efforts in the healthcare sector is occupied with work with infectious diseases; currently, new cases of tuberculosis and HIV infection continue to be recorded in the Central Asian region.

Along with this, according to statistics, about 80% of the total number of deaths occur in noncommunicable diseases. And to reduce this indicator, it is necessary to strengthen preventive measures. All this requires strengthening health as a system. Therefore, WHO’s efforts are aimed precisely at helping to create such a system and increasing the potential of the specialists on whom it rests.

The international experience that guides WHO in this direction indicates the importance of the 6 main blocks necessary for the construction and functioning of health as a system. Among them: strategic leadership and management; the provision of quality services; information system and digitalization; access to medicines and technologies, diagnostic laboratories, health workforce and financing, etc.

Speaking about the achievement by Uzbekistan of the Sustainable Development Goals, which are set before all countries at the global level, it is also important to understand the need for this appropriate development of all the above areas.

With the expert support of WHO, Uzbekistan has developed a Concept for the Development of the Healthcare System for 2019-2025, and the Ministry of Health is currently developing normative legal acts (NLAs) to disclose each strategic direction stipulated by the Concept.

The Chairman of the National Chamber, Rovshan Izamov, noted that all legal acts related to health care are subject to expert assessment by specialists of this state structure, while recommendations are given based on the best international standards and approaches.

The parties expressed the general opinion that the consolidation of all interested parties, including the National Chamber, the WHO Representative Office, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and others, will contribute to the effectiveness of the reform stages that are being implemented and are yet to come in Uzbekistan with the aim of improving medical care for the country’s population and upholding the principles of healthy lifestyle.

In particular, WHO notes the importance of the active participation of the National Chamber in an interagency group that works on issues of changing the financing system adopted today in health care, as well as on the implementation of a pilot project to introduce a compulsory health insurance (MHI) system. This is all the more relevant because the National Chamber is working on the implementation of registration of all doctors and pharmacists in Uzbekistan, which is also part of the digitalization of healthcare, as well as compulsory medical insurance.

During the conversation, the parties repeatedly pointed out the importance of digitalization for a radical reform of the healthcare system. According to Lian Kuppens, capacity building in this area, a deep understanding of the areas of digitalization and its significance remain a very important issue. There are many players in this field today, she noted, and it is important that they speak the same language. WHO is promoting the idea of creating a single national platform with which various projects with their own software should be integrated. Multidirectional work is also important for the development of personnel potential, for example, in order to teach paramedics to coding diagnoses.

The introduction of the same compulsory medical insurance implies the development of a single package of guaranteed medical care in which everything should be calculated, including the services of a general practitioner, a nurse, the necessary criteria, and so on. This, in turn, is associated with the updating of the Clinical Protocols, which are dealt with by the National Chamber of Innovative Health.

As a result of the negotiations, the parties reached an agreement on cooperation on an ongoing basis, the exchange of information and the inclusion of experts of the National Chamber in projects supervised and promoted in the country by the World Health Organization.