According to the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, between 15 and 20 Kyrgyz people are diagnosed with cancer every day. But the real figure, as the National Center for Oncology and Hematology explained to the RG correspondent, is probably higher, since many citizens, especially those living in remote regions, are in no hurry to get an exam and are dragging it out until the last minute. moment. moment. That is why cancer screening in the country often occurs at advanced stages, and cancer is one of the leading causes of death in Kyrgyzstan today.
The Cabinet of Ministers hopes that the situation will change for the better after the reforms to the cancer care law for the population of the republic, approved more than 20 years ago, are approved.
According to the Cabinet, today state medical institutions have a monopoly on the treatment of patients suffering from neoplasms. As for private traders, according to the above legal act, they can only provide palliative care (medical interventions, psychological measures, care, as well as the provision of social services to patients).
“State health care organizations play an important role in providing health care to the population, including in the treatment of malignant neoplasms. However, their monopoly has some negative consequences,” the amendments memorandum reads.
First, patients have limited options. They can receive qualified treatment only in state medical institutions. Another option is to leave the republic to countries where there are private clinics. This, as noted in the Cabinet, leads to a decrease in the quality of medical care provided and an increase in the waiting time for an appointment with a doctor.
Second, monopoly reduces the effectiveness of medical interventions. “Public health organizations cannot always quickly adapt to new technologies, which slows down the development and use of modern methods to treat cancer,” the rationale states.
Thirdly, public medical institutions themselves are not always interested in improving the quality of their work aimed at providing high-quality medical care to patients, including due to insufficient funds. As a result, many of them remain without proper treatment and care.
By allowing private traders to work in this segment of the republic’s medical services market, the government hopes to solve the identified problems.
Opinion
Baktygul Sultangaziyeva, director of the National Center for Oncology and Hematology:
– People have been talking about allowing private medical institutions to treat cancer patients in Kyrgyzstan for over a year. Personally, I don’t care, because we are talking about healthy competition, which will only benefit both doctors and patients. World practice shows that this is so. The patient should be able to choose who to go to. However, permission, in my opinion, can only be granted under certain conditions. One is that public health facilities should retain some of the services they provide to patients. For example, they will undergo radiation therapy only with us.
