Health Ministry to offer full financing for liver transplantation surgeries
The Georgian Ministry of Health will fully finance liver transplantation surgeries, increasing the state support from partial coverage. Photo: PM's press office
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The Georgian Ministry of Health will fully finance liver transplantation surgeries, increasing the state support from partial coverage, the Georgian Government Administration announced on Monday.
The change removes patients’ co-payment for liver transplantations, with the Ministry covering the full ₾120,000 ($46,069) cost of the procedure. The increase follows on the 2019 raising of funding from ₾60,000 ($23,034) to ₾ 70,000 ($26,873), when the share of patients’ co-payments stood at ₾50,000 ($19,195).
In addition, liver, heart or kidney transplantations are now used to classify patients as having “significant disability”, in a change that came into force in January.
The decision was made at today’s Government meeting, which also discussed increasing financial assistance for socially vulnerable children under 16 from ₾150 to ₾200 starting on July 1.
Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili said about 232,000 children would receive the increased assistance.
He said ₾70 million ($27mln) would be added to this year’s budget, with ₾200 per month paid in assistance to beneficiaries. The budget of the programme will reach ₾500 million ($192mln) this year, the Minister also noted.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said the Government had allocated ₾465 million ($185.65mln) to raise monthly assistance to socially vulnerable children to ₾200 ($79.85) this year.
Georgian Deputy Health Minister Tamar Barkalaia on Thursday said a recent survey on Child Welfare, conducted by the National Statistics Office of Georgia with the support of UNICEF, highlighted the country’s “substantive progress” in reducing child poverty.
Oncology patients in Georgia will be able to complete full courses of drug treatment with state funding. There are more than 38,000 oncology patients in Georgia.
Tbilisi City Hall has announced plans to increase funding for liver transplantation from existing 60,000 GEL ($21,000) to 70,000 GEL($26,000).
Nursing and midwifery will become regulated professions in Georgia in a bid to improve the quality of medical services, promote education and professional development of nurses and midwives and overcome shortages of nursing staff, the Government Administration said on Monday.
The Georgian Government on Monday said it would fund oncological surgery, both planned and emergency, for all cancer patients without the state-funded insurance, and announced tougher regulations for dental service providers to ensure higher standards for safety.
The Ministry of Health of Georgia has set new standards for dental clinics, tightening rules for launch and operation of venues across the country.