The promotion of a new mechanism for contracting medical services provided by family doctors, extension of the list of drugs compensated with money from the mandatory health insurance funds, purchase of new ambulances to the value of 273 million lei and creation of s new regional hospital are among the priorities of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection for 2018, IPN reports.

In a news conference on January 30, the Ministry’s administration said the waiting list for operations for cataract will be reduced by decreasing the waiting time and performing surgery closer to the domicile, while the oncological chemotherapy and radiotherapy services will be provided in ambulatory conditions for some categories of patients who do not need to be hospitalized.

In the field of social and health insurance, the compulsoriness of holding a policy on paper will be excluded. The social benefits will be indexed on April 1 this year depending on the annual growth rate of the consumer price index for the previous year. This rate is forecast to stand at 6.5%.

In the area of social assistance, the social allowances for 27,000 persons with childhood disabilities and for 11,700 children with disables will be raised by 20%. There will also be promoted and approved the national deinstitutionalization program and the plan of action for implementing this. The program envisions the deinstitutionalization of about 2,000 persons during ten years.