Women’s health gets in focus as nation ponders its own

The conference, Women's Health, the Health of the Nation, was organized through co-operative efforts of the Nur Otan's Social Council operating under the Mazhilis of Parliament, the National Commission on Women Affairs and Demographic Policy, and the Alliance of Women's Organizations of Kazakhstan.

The conference sought to support positive trends in family and demographic developments in Kazakhstan, thus influencing the formation of healthy women's lifestyle and drawing attention to nation's genetic resources.

Chairman of the Nur Otan NDP's Social Council Aitkul Samakova said the Kazakh government has substantially raised the financing of public health services in recent years.

In his annual state of the nation address, President Nursultan Nazarbayev noted the nation's health was an integral part of Kazakhstan's success on the way to achieving its strategic goals, she added. Thus, over the past five years the financing of health care services has increased more than four times. Still, the government is planning to continue allocating more money, raising the figure nearly up to 4% of the country's GDP this year.

In the meantime, Kazakhstan's three-year budget program for 2010-2011 retains the expenses for medical treatment of socially significant illnesses.

Aitkul Samakova presented a draft project providing active and efficient measures on public health protection for the next decade. These comprise building and equipping health care facilities, training personnel and forming healthy lifestyle of women.

The realization of these goals will allow lowering maternal and child mortality rates by more than twofold, thus reducing the general mortality rate of Kazakhstan's population by almost 30% and that of morbidity by nearly 20%. In the meantime, the average lifespan in the future is expected to increase to 72 years, whereas today it reaches 68 years.

Moreover, Kazakhstan's pharmaceutical industry has many perspectives for development as well. In five years, drugs produced by Kazakhstan's manufacturers will cover 50% of the nation's pharmacy market. Today 90% of all medicines in Kazakhstan are imported from abroad. "Therefore, we are facing some important tasks and there is still much work to be done ahead," Aitkul Samakova said.

"The President and the leader of our party Nursultan Nazarbayev has clearly defined Kazakhstan's further strategic development in the new decade. Our goal today is the efficient implementation of the priority tasks. All our efforts and resources are directed at improving the living standards in Kazakhstan, which is also mentioned in Nur Otan's plan of action," the party secretary Sergey Gromov noted, as he underscored a key role women play in solving a wide range of issues.

Despite the extensive efforts in health care services, there are still numerous challenges requiring prompt reaction from all state bodies and agencies. The latter include the increasing growth of child disability rate and acute shortage of professional medical staff. Thus, 198 obstetrician-gynecologists and 215 pediatricians are missing throughout the country, while 70% of all health care workers have reached their retirement age.

Representatives from the ministries of labour and social security, health, and education and science, taking part in the conference, dwelled on particular tasks and goals facing each state body regarding specific areas of their responsibility. According to them, Kazakhstan's health development program for 2011-2015 will mainly focus on preventive health care measures, Kazinform refers to the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Israel.