Increased attention is to be paid in 2017 to the reform of public health services by reducing the number of inspection bodies and creating the Public Health Agency. Ghenadie Turcanu, expert of the Center for Health Policies and Studies (PAS), has told IPN that the network of public hospitals needs to be reformed next year.
“Owing to the non-implementation of this reform, the resources accumulated for the health system are spent inefficiently. About half of the budget for health goes to hospitals. All studies show that the patients do not receive services of the quality they want. The medical personnel have the same opinion. They have to work without the necessary equipment. The reform does not envision a reduction in the number of hospitals. These will be restructured as the existing network is not adjusted to the needs of the population,” stated Ghenadie Turcanu.
According to the expert, what we have now is Soviet inheritance. The hospitals center more on the treatment of acute diseases and less on the treatment of chronic diseases and rehabilitation. The results of the reform of the network of public hospitals depend also on the development level of the primary medical assistance. “Without developed primary medical assistance, the reform of public hospitals will be unsuccessful. When you do the reform, you must have well-developed primary medical assistance services with sufficient medical staff so that the people are able to use these services as close to the home as possible, in ambulatory conditions,” he said.
Ghenadie Turcanu stated that specific regulations to regulate the activity of service providers should be worked out so as to avoid risks of corruption and informal payments in the health system. Also, the personnel of the health system should be supported by being paid and promoted according to performance. The initiated reform to increase salaries and remunerate according to the achieved results should be brought to an end. The access to drugs is a global problem and not only the Republic of Moldova faces a shortage of drugs and high prices of medicines.
The expert also said that the Government and the Ministry of Health should implement medicine accessibility policies because the reform of public hospitals depends also on the accessibility of drugs in ambulatory treatment. As Moldova’s population is aging, more services are required for elderly people.
