For the public health area, 2022 continued to be a pandemic year. Even if vaccination and collective immunity reduced the size of pandemic waves, the population continues to be at the pandemic response phase, international public health expert Ala Tocarciuc stated for IPN.

The expert noted that among the positive results of 2022 is the continuous extension of access to medical services and medicines. New medicines were added to the list of compensated drugs and investments continued to be made in equipment and infrastructure, with these actions being initiated during the pandemic.

As regards the policies, Ala Tocarciuc said particular strategies concerning the quality of medical services, uniform access to high performance services and the backing for these services should have been seen on paper at least.

In 2022, all the payments for the health policy were the burden of employees. “So, 9% of the salary is paid for health insurance. This is a rather high figure comparable with that in developed countries. But the quality of services and the access to modern medical services is lower in Moldova,” said Ala Tocarciuc. According to her, solutions should be identified as regards the covering of costs as the people now pay for health policy and also pay for many of the medical services in private clinics.

In 2022, the health system continued to treat only the sick ones. But health protection means also prevention of disease and a change in the approach is necessary here too, believes Ala Tocarciuc.

She noted that the people who work in the health system need decent salaries, a balance between working hours and personal life, respect and a little more attention as not even a very modern hospital will be able to work without doctors and nurses.

According to Ala Tocarciuc, Moldova has yet a lot to do in terms of innovations, but investment in people is more important than investment in innovations in the case of Moldova.