A small expert team from m4h (Michael Niechzial, Aybek Khudaybergenov) participated in a World Bank mission to Uzbekistan. The purpose of the mission was to support the Uzbek MOH with the development of their National Health (Sector) Strategy (NHS) 2030.
20 national and international experts from different countries assured consideration of state-of-the-art expertise in the analysis of the Uzbek health system and the development of recommendations for reform measures to be implemented by the Government of Uzbekistan. The expert team specifically looked at issues linked with quality of care, health care financing, public health policies and programs, data and information management in health, the pharmaceutical sector, private sector involvement, system governance, and service delivery.
Based on the analysis of demographic and epidemiological trends and the performance of the existing health care system, the m4h team identified key issues and made the following recommendations:
- Integrate Emergency Medical Services into the general service delivery system
- Reorganize and rationalize the extremely fragmented system of tertiary level care offered by “Republican Specialized Scientific and Practical Medical Centres”
- Transform centres narrowly focusing on medical specialties and subspecialties into multidisciplinary hospitals providing care to advanced and complex cases
- Increase the use of outpatient and day-care services for cases and pathologies that do not require inpatient care with overnight stay
- Strengthen secondary (regional level) and primary (district level) care
- Integrate perinatal centres (240) into district and regional hospitals
- Upgrade Family Doctor Polyclinics and Family Doctor Points
The suggestions were very welcomed by the Minister of Health and his team who participated in a workshop that took place on the 14th and 15th of May 2022 in Tashkent. An operational plan of actions, containing the results and policy/strategy recommendations, will be submitted to the MOH and the WB by mid-June 2022. This roadmap will serve as a basis for a reform program to be technically and financially supported by the World Bank and other Development Partners.
Participants of the workshop on 14th and 15th of May 2022 in Tashkent
