Ulaanbaatar
Moving ambulatory service to be created in rural areas
Politics
Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/ The Government plans to create a moving ambulatory service in rural areas to improve the access to health services and involve rural citizens in preventative check-ups. This service will be very productive to realize WHO’s principle ‘Leaving no one behind’. Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh noted it when he made a report on public health care and services at the plenary meeting of the Parliament on April 20.
Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh said, “In Government’s Action Plan, fundamental goals of health sector are determined to be improvement of personnel capacity and create economic estimations on improvement of health service sufficiency, diagnosis and prevention from illness. It also asserts that the National Program will be implemented to improve awareness of population, form right habits and attitude, develop social health care and service and prevent population from non-communicable diseases. To achieve the goal, the Government approved a ‘State Policy on health’ in 2017.”
He also introduced present state of the health sector, statistical review and actions realized and planned in the sector. For instance, the Government has resolved to increase the number of health services, which will be financed by the Health Insurance Fund (HIF).
“As a result of introducing innovation and advanced technology and strengthening human resource capacity in health sector, the number of diseases that were not treated in the country decreased from 39 to 32. Moreover, since the Law on Organ Donation came into effect in January, it has been legally possible for those who are in need of organ transplantation to get treatment in the home country. As of today, surgeries for 48 liver transplants, 153 kidney transplants and 10 bone marrow transplants have been carried out successfully. The first surgeries of heart and pancreas transplants was conducted successfully,” emphasized the PM.
Health Insurance Fund has been transfered to online starting April 1. Presently, it has been introduced in primary health care units and pharmacies. In case the digital system operates thoroughly, every insurer will get information about health services, alongside improved supervision on service quality and expenditure.
Another issue touched on in the PM’s address was about a National Program ‘Whole Liver-Mongolia’, which enforces comprehensive measures for detecting and treating Hepatitis B and C infections, one of the key causes of liver cancer and cirrhosis. The first stage of the program ran nationwide in 2017, involving 535 thousand people aged 40-65. The HIF funded the measure with MNT6.6 billion and 20.3 thousand insurers in total have been involved in the Hepatitis-C treatment, for which the HIF financed with MNT9.6 billion. Also, over 93 thousand Hepatitis-B free people got voluntarily involved in the vaccination.
The second stage of ‘Whole Liver-Mongolia’ launched on April 4, 2018 nationwide. It will involve 1.2 million people aged 15-39 and over 65. Required financing for screening tests and treatment will be provided by the HIF.
A goal has been set by the government to restrict prevalence of hepatitis infections amongst population and stop new cases of Hepatitis-C by 2020, reducing death rate caused by liver cirrhosis and cancer.
M. Unurzul
