Press releases

MINSK, 21 April (BelTA) – The Belarusian healthcare has recently made great headway. Belarus is taking the world’s leading positions in the quality of medical services, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said during his annual State of the Nation Address on 21 April, BelTA has learned.

The head of state commended the country’s progress in transplantology. Over the past ten years the number of transplantation operations has increased almost 25 times. 2016 marked a new landmark: Belarusian doctors conducted a complex “heart-lung” transplant surgery for the first time.

According to the president, the state has developed a flexible system of providing medical assistance, which includes oblast and urban clinics, district hospitals and neighborhood health centers. National scientific and practical centers apply the latest technologies and serve as a driving force of the national medical industry. Youth that come from universities start learning from specialists such as, for instance, Oleg Rummo, the head of the National Research Center for Organ and Tissue Transplantation. Medicine has reached the level when “transplant operations are conducted in regional centers already.”

An efficient system of mother and child healthcare has been developed in the country. “Belarus has a very low child and maternal mortality rate, which places the country on par with the world’s most developed countries. We are proud of this achievement. We need to continue implementing high technologies in our maternity clinics and prenatal centers,” Alexander Lukashenko said.

Numerous achievements in the healthcare sector are a result of the country’s efforts to set up modern medical centers, fit medical institutions with the latest equipment, implement cutting-edge technologies. “This year we expect to earn $40 million on the export of medical services. If someone had told me about it some five years ago, I would have called them dreamers. We have achieved this step by step. Today, Russian women come to Vitebsk, let alone Minsk, to give birth. They come here because they trust our medical industry,” the head of state said.

According to Alexander Lukashenko, the primary care system, which still has problems, cannot be left overlooked. These are, for instance, medical services in rural areas and certain district centers where the average life expectancy is lower than that in cities. “First of all, it is necessary to secure high-quality primary medical assistance. Advanced medical technologies should be implemented more extensively. Secondly, there is a need to staff healthcare institutions with highly-qualified personnel. Thirdly, emergency health services should be provided promptly and in full volume everywhere and, first of all, in villages,” the head of state demanded. Close attention should be attached to facilitating to diagnostic services, including in the rural areas.