On November 30, Astana hosted the Forum "Investing in health of the Republic of Kazakhstan" with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Yerbolat Dossayev, Minister of Healthcare of Kazakhstan Yelzhan Birtanov.
Partners of the Forum were the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and National center for health development.
This event is dedicated to the development of infrastructure, the search for models of cooperation between the state and private medicine, investment in health and the implementation of public-private partnerships.
Representatives of international financial organizations, potential investors, medical business, international and Kazakh experts in the field of health investments and PPP projects, representatives of key ministries and akimats of oblasts, Astana and Almaty took part in the forum.
Currently, in Kazakhstan there are 7 914 health facilities, of which 6 764 objects are public and 1 150 – private ones.
At the same time, in connection with the deterioration of buildings and medical equipment, lack of design capacity of outpatient organizations, high security beds, the total need for investment in the healthcare industry today is estimated at around 1 trillion tenge.
The Ministry of Health is going to conduct a restructuring and network planning, development of investment plan and attraction of private investments to the sector for the development of infrastructure in 2018-2019 year.
As a result, a program of the development of a network of medical organizations, including through public-private partnerships will be fully implemented. Thus, budgetary investments will be directed at projects for which private financing is impractical.
«In terms of implementation of PPP projects in the health sector it is necessary to mark growth of activity of regions. 32 PPP contracts for the construction, modernization, management and equipment of healthcare organizations have been signed. Documentation has been prepared for 78 projects, including 3 national and 75 local ones. The projects include the construction and operation of hospitals, outpatient clinics, polyclinics, procurement of medical equipment», - said the Minister of Healthcare of Kazakhstan Yelzhan Birtanov.
In the framework of private investment the ministry is preparing to contest on three national projects for the creation of University hospitals on the scheme Facility management, which mwans that the private partner builds, equips, sends a state property and provides non-medical services, and the state in turn pays a fee for the availability throughout the contract. It is planned to implement 2 projects in Almaty - a University hospital with 300 beds and combined clinics for 1200 beds, and also the University hospital in Karaganda for 300 beds.
In the report Yelzhan Birtanov said that the development of PPPs is part of a policy to increase the share of private sector in health care by reducing administrative barriers, improvement of tariff policy and other measures. The planned share of private providers of medical services within the guaranteed volume of free medical assistance under the state Program "Densaulyk" is 30.5% for 2017, as of September 2017 the figure was 39.3%, a positive dynamics is observed.
Also the Forum expert community discussed topical issues of development of public-private partnerships and attraction private investments in health in the framework of 4 panel sessions:
- "Role of private sector in improving the quality and availability of medical services," moderator – Zhannat Yertlessova, the Chairman of the management Board of the Association of taxpayers of Kazakhstan;
- "What types of projects consistent with the goals and strategies of the country?" moderator - Susanna Ayrapetyan, the World Bank representative;
- "Health infrastructure and medical assistance: planning, development and financing", moderated by Sule Kilic, the Deputy Country Director (Turkey), EBRD;
- "Digitization of healthcare and telemedicine", moderated by Olzhas Abishev, the General Director of the National Centre for e-health.
