The Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) has launched a project to determine the extent to which the ruling parties delivered their electoral promises. Most of the electoral promises concerning the health sector were made in 2010 by the Democratic Party – eight. The Liberal Party made seven such promises, while the Liberal Democratic Party that manages the Health Ministry made no promise related to healthcare. Experts’ analyses are published on the website promis.md.
According to ADEPT, in general the electoral promises made by the politicians in the previous legislative elections were fulfilled at a satisfactory level. In a news conference at IPN, ADEPT member Polina Panainte said the ruling parties promised to provide healthcare concessions for different groups of people, including nonworking mothers looking after children younger than three, who are officially registered as unemployed, and to cheapen the health policy for young people younger than 30. The politicians also promised to modernize the medical infrastructure, to increase the salaries of doctors and to reduce alcohol and tobacco use.
The expert stated that in the period of the current government, the prices of drugs were maintained at an acceptable level. The financing for healthcare increased. A number of 63 projects financed by the international development partners, to the value of €91.5 million, were launched in the health sector in 2010–2014. There were built or repaired over 60 health centers in villages. A new surgical block was constructed at the National Clinical Hospital. The quality of services provided to mothers and children increased. A number of measures were taken to improve the infrastructure of the gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics sections.
According to Polina Panainte, an essential rise wasn’t possible in the salaries of doctors, which remain two times lower than the pays in the financial, insurance and IT sectors. The steps taken to reduce the number of smokers and alcohol use didn’t produce satisfactory results, Moldova being at the top of the list of countries with the highest alcohol consumption per capita. Over the last few years, the number of smoking women has trebled. The policies to form, motivate and place in a job medical personnel and to stop the exodus of staff from the health system didn’t have an impact yet.
ADEPT executive director Igor Botan said the Liberal Democratic Party didn’t make many promises related to healthcare, but, after the Ministry of Health was entrusted to it, had to assume the promises of the coalition colleagues. The politicians should make promises in the areas in which they know that they have well-trained specialists who will cope with the necessary reforms.
