Ministry of Health Asks Georgia: “What’s the problem?”

The Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia has created an online questionnaire “What’s the problem?” to help identify the most important gaps and problems in the health care system. The Ministry is asking Georgian citizens to be active, to contribute and to help to develop a better health care system and reforms. The project started on January 25 and is set to last one month.

“The Ministry of Health has a Strategy and Action Plan, in the framework of which we annually conduct a number of projects in the health care system,” said Georgian Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs, Davit Sergeenko. “Some of these are analytical, and are implemented to identify and analyze important aspects of the system. In this case, we strongly believe we need more communication with the public in order to understand exactly what problems they are experiencing. With the help of the “What’s the problem?” project, we hope to gather the maximum amount of information in a short space of time.”

The questionnaire is very simple; most of the questions can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and mainly relate to how often residents use medical services, insurance, go to the General Practitioner doctor and how much money they spend on medicines.

“Of course, we highlighted some important topics, which in any case will be solved this year – accessibility to medication, the development of primary insurance, access to quality health care. However, beside this we need more details from citizens,” said Minister Sergeenko.

Another group of questions are estimates; with residents asked to specify where they see strengths and weaknesses in the system, what they like and dislike, and to evaluate existing projects and express their views regarding future reforms.

The “What’s the problem?” project is being implemented in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Health and Social Compact. Jean-Elie Malkin, Director of Global Alliance for Health and Social Compact highly estimated the joint work with the Ministry and was sure that this program can significantly improve the health care system in Georgia and move it forward. However, he emphasized the need for the active involvement of citizens.

“Undoubtedly, the Minister [of Health], and international organizations are aware of what the problems are in the health care system, but giving the floor to the population will help us to get very concrete information in order to be able to pay specific attention to some issues,” said Malkin. “We are doing it for the citizens, to offer them the best service, better quality and also some consideration for the price of services. But, definitely, it is a very important step to be closer to the general public.”

The questionnaire “What’s the problem?” is available online at 1505.ge or at all regional health care offices. According to the results of the questionnaire, the Ministry of Health, together with Global Alliance, will take relevant steps and additional measures to meet the needs and requirements of the Georgia population.

Eka Karsaulidze