Vice PM : PHC helped reduce child mortality in Kazakhstan

‘Alma' in Kazakh means ‘apple', ‘Ata' is ‘grandfather'. An apple a day keeps a doctor away, they say. For this reason the Declaration on Primary Health Care was adopted in Alma-Ata [now Almaty - editor], the ‘city of apples'. The Declaration turned out to be a revolutionary document. After the capital of Kazakhstan was moved to Astana in 1997, we have been trying to rebuild our country towards the global paradigm. We have established an open economic space and now we have to overcome the difficulties of the time," said Dossayev.

The Minister said that Kazakhstan's healthcare system fully integrates into the PHC programme. "The 100 Specific Steps programme launched by the Government at Nazarbayev's instruction in 2015 provides for introduction of mandatory health insurance as an important step of achieving sustainable development till 2020," the Vice PM said.

According to him, from 2008 to 2017, despite increased spending on healthcare sector, the country's GDP increased significantly which resulted in child deaths decrease. Thanks to PHC, child mortality fell from 21,000 to 8,000 and life expectancy increased from 67 to 73.

As reported before, a new Declaration of Primary Health Care will be adopted at the Conference.