2013 Year in Review: Reforms in Healthcare and Social Service

The Universal Healthcare, Hepatitis C treatment program, and the Social Assistance were considered as the major achievements for the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, according to the Minister Davit Sergeenko during the annual report presentation on December 28.  

"We have clearly declared a strategy that the state should encourage strong instruments of quality control in order to provide quality and continuous provision of medical services for its citizens. stated Davit Sergeenko.

In the beginning of presentation, Mr. Sergeenko emphasized that his team was handed down a quite complicated legacy from the previous government.

"The primary strategy of the new team was the strategy for survival. In the shortest period, we managed to implement the reform that would protect the citizens of Georgia from two main factors: first - to avoid death or damage of health condition due to the lack of financial resources during health problems or accident and the second objective - to avoid poverty of the citizen because they had to pay the medical care cost. said Davit Sergeenko.

The Universal Healthcare

At the beginning of 2013, the first stage of the Universal Healthcare program was launched for nearly 2 million citizens of Georgia without medical insurance.  

The first stage of the Universal Healthcare program was stipulated for services of the primary healthcare doctors and management of the emergencies for both impatient and outpatient levels. More than a million people were registered for the scheduled outpatient and clinic services since the February 28 until the 1^st of July. During the same period, outpatient services were provided to more over 40,000 citizens and more than 15,000 received urgent hospital assistance. In addition, 80% of clinics nationwide were involved in realization of the universal healthcare program.

At that moment, more over the 135,000 residents have used the insurance of the universal healthcare program; more than 45,000 have used the insurance for the emergency ambulance service, nearly 40,000 for immunization, and almost 22,000 for urgent hospitalization.

According to the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs, financial availability of basic medical service became guaranteed for every citizen through universal healthcare that are provided by state and private insurance programs.

The second stage of the Universal Healthcare was launched on the 1^st of July. Georgian citizens could apply for six major blocks of medical services, such as the extended service of primary healthcare, urgent outpatient assistance, extended urgent hospitalization, planned surgeries, child delivery, and treatment of oncologic diseases. The latter is the second highest disease causing death in Georgia after the cardiovascular diseases, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

At the end of 2012, only half of the Georgian population was insured under the state insurance. Another half had to pay the full cost of the medical care from their own pockets, which led to extremely high expenses, poverty, and accumulation of debts. About 70% of total expenses in the healthcare area came from the pockets of the Georgian residents, according to Davit Sergeenko.

Currently, the beneficiaries of the Universal Healthcare Program are the citizens who didn't have a medical insurance police by July 1. Those citizens, whose health insurance contract with a private insurance company terminated after July 1 for any reason, became eligible for the Universal Healthcare Program and could receive family or district doctors services and the service of a nurse free of charge.

The  Inter-agency  cooperations development in 2013

In March of the current year, the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs with the leadership of the Prime Minister, and supported by the ten Georgian ministries, established a tobacco monitoring state commission. According to the statistics, almost 40% of citizens are smokers in Georgia. Thats why the tobacco monitoring is one of the major challenges for the Georgian governments. The government made changes in the seven bills that should be approved by the parliament and will come into force in 2014.

Although the infant mortality statistical data was reduced from 21% to 11% (to 1000 born child) in 2011- 12, this issue remains as one of the major challenges for the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs to solve. The latter has established the special council focused on the infants and mothers care in Georgia. The council works on the pregnant women and newborns emergency referral and retrieval with the assistance of the international organizations such as UNICEF, JSI, and UNFRA.

However, one of the major achievements of the new government is considered the Hepatitis C treatment program, which aims to supply the universal availability for treatment by 2016. From the end of current year, the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs activated this program in the Georgian penitentiary system, where almost 50% are carrying the Hepatitis C.

As for the other diseases, the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs with the assistance of international organizations and Harvard Medical School began to work on the early diagnostics and prophylactics of ontological diseases in Georgia. In addition, the above mentioned ministry supports the treatment program for the children with leukemia.

According to the statistics, 50% of children with ontological diseases have leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood. The hemato-oncologists of the M. Iashvili Childrens Central Hospital believe that 70% of these children are able to be treated in Georgia.

The important decision was made concerning AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria also. The Ministry of Health is planning to complete the global funds projects. The National Center for Disease Control and Public Health will be appointed as the state institution in 2014 to make the donor and state finances more effective.

The Mental Health Care is always the Achilles heel for every government in Georgia. According to the statistics, more over 70,000 cases of mental and behavioral disorders were registered in Georgia during the last four years. The Open Society Georgia Foundation and the UN Development Program contributed to the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia to make an action plan for the Mental Health Inpatient Services development.

The above mentioned Ministry with the assistance of the Healthcare committee of Georgian Parliament manages the Mental Health Policy Determining Council since 2013.

The Social Protection - Pension and Aid

"The strategy toward the disabled persons reveals how democratic the government is. Exactly this approach to those people will emphasize Georgias European choice. The government of Georgia announced 2013 as the year for disabled persons. said Irakli Garibashvili regarding the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 4 of December.

According to Nika Donjashvili, a 25-year-old boy with disabilities, during the last several years, he and his friends with disabilities were abandoned by the government. The monthly aid for these people was 70 GEL. Since 2013 the aid for the disabled people has increased to 100 GEL.

Currently more than 70,000 persons are granted the aid from the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs. Also, the monthly aid was increased to 100 GEL for the children with disabilities. The pension was granted to almost 12,000 disabled children in Georgia.

"I feel that this government really supports citizens with disabilities. I felt myself encouraged when the Prime Minister launched the ramps to make infrastructures adaptable for the people with disabilities. said Nika Donjashvili, the 25-year-old boy with disabilities.

The pension also was increased by 40 GEL for the pensioners. Since September of 2013, over 650,000 60+year-old citizens of Georgia are getting 150 GEL monthly. The aid doubled for orphan kids. Currently their monthly aid is 100 GEL.

However, the families which are below the poverty line still remain one of the chief problems for the government to solve. The Minister of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs stated during the annual report presentation, that his team has faced quite complicated challenges regarding the work of the Social Service Agency. There was a problem with the database for socially vulnerable population, as it was out of date and not reliable.

"Serious mistakes were made in terms of guidelines. Applicants for social assistance could be rejected for having some kind of household appliance. The amount of social allowance was low too. We have taken very effective steps in this area and still keep working on the guidelines.

Deinstitutionalization  of  the orphanages

The deinstitutionalization process was begun for the children from the orphanages. According to the Ministry of the Labor, Health and Social Affairs decision, the non-governmental organizations will provide care for these children more effectively than it was before. In the framework of the deinstitutionalization process, two large orphanages were closed in Georgia.  

According to the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, Davit Sergeenko, the aim is to boost the adoption process. In addition, the government made amendments to the law on Social Assistance to avoid the adoption of children by poor families.

Nowadays several children's homes are functioning, such as the orphanages for the newborns and disabled children.

According to the data of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs, five international adoptions were completed and almost 3000 candidates were registered in 2013.

Labor Worknet.gov.ge

The National Center for Disease and Health Control and Public Health hosted a presentation of a new informational web-portal worknet.gov.ge for labor market management as a response to unemployment.

The new information portal is a statistical-analytic system of labor market processes, which allows the development and prognosis of major trends. The site www.worknet.gov.ge gives the opportunity for citizens to post information about their abilities and desires, seek jobs, and find employers.

The visitors will be able to participate in vocational training programs. The portal will help job seekers to develop their professional skills according to the market demand and to plan their career.