In an interview with the newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan” dedicated to the Day of Healthcare Workers and the Medical Industry, the UNDP representative in Turkmenistan, Narine Sahakyan, spoke about the priority areas of cooperation between the country and UNDP in the field of healthcare. Here are the key points from the interview:
Increasing the availability and quality of medical services for all segments of the population: UNDP has been a strategic partner of the Government of Turkmenistan in the field of development for more than 25 years, and healthcare is a priority area of this cooperation.
UNDP and the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan have been working together for many years to achieve universal health coverage, one of the indicators of Sustainable Development Goal No. 3: “Good health and well-being.”
UNDP’s support includes the purchase of medical equipment, laboratory reagents, and medicines, as well as the development of national treatment standards in accordance with international recommendations, training of specialists, and the introduction of innovations in the field of healthcare.
Providing medicines for the treatment of rare and so-called orphan diseases: For the first time in 2023, UNDP and the Ministry of Health began to cooperate on the provision of medicines for the treatment of rare and so-called orphan diseases.
Protecting maternal and child health: UNDP also contributes to the protection of maternal and child health.
Procurement and supply of medicines: UNDP assists Turkmenistan in the procurement of medical products. The main reason for this is to guarantee the quality of medical supplies, which are purchased only from manufacturers that meet the quality standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), European Union (EU) countries, the United States, and Japan.
Additionally, UNDP is able to achieve significant price reductions by combining orders for many countries, which increases the volume of purchases and lowers the price of products. Finally, UNDP has contracts with global suppliers who can quickly solve logistical difficulties and deliver goods in an acceptable time.
Results of joint work to provide the population with medicines to combat infectious and non-communicable diseases: UNDP has been supplying high-quality medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis and viral hepatitis to Turkmenistan for many years. Since 2020, the Government of Turkmenistan has been financing the supply of more than 100 vital medicines for the treatment of non-communicable diseases, such as insulins for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular, oncological, endocrine, neurological, and chronic respiratory diseases.
“The delivered medicines are distributed to medical institutions throughout the country. This project, which we are proud of, has received a lot of positive responses from the population and doctors. Therefore, it was decided to continue and expand cooperation in this direction,” Sahakyan stressed.
The new list of the second project signed in February 2023 included additional medicines for emergency care during childbirth, complications in newborns, as well as medicines for the treatment of rare diseases.
“It is especially important for us that we help the Government of Turkmenistan effectively use state funds and provide medical services to more people, including in remote areas. I want to emphasize that all medicines for non-communicable diseases are actually provided to the population by the Government of Turkmenistan, although through the UNDP,” Sahakyan noted.
Project to strengthen the clinical and laboratory service in Turkmenistan
UNDP has many years of experience in improving laboratory diagnostics. For example, since 2010, with the support of a grant from the Global Fund, the diagnosis of tuberculosis has been improved.
Now in any province of Turkmenistan, it is possible to make accurate tests for tuberculosis, get a result within a maximum of two days, and all tests comply with WHO recommendations. Moreover, the quality of laboratory tests is confirmed by an external evaluation by a laboratory based in Germany.
In other projects, UNDP supports the improvement of laboratory screening of donated blood to ensure its safety for transfusion. Since 2018, the blood donation service of Turkmenistan has been continuously provided with high-quality reagents and consumables, modern technologies for screening, collection, and storage of donated blood and its components have been introduced.
In February of this year, the UNDP in Turkmenistan and the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry signed a new project “Strengthening clinical and laboratory services in Turkmenistan in 2023-2024”. The document is aimed at comprehensive improvement of laboratory services, especially at the level of Health Homes and District hospitals.
It is planned to equip new laboratory equipment, reagents, training of laboratory specialists, implementation of a quality control system and much more. The implementation of this project will allow patients in provinces and districts, including those living in rural and remote areas of the country, to get access to modern, high-quality and reliable laboratory services near home.
Speaking about the prospects for the future, the UNDP representative to Turkmenistan Narine Sahakyan assured that being one of the country’s largest international partners in improving the efficiency of the health system, UNDP will continue to expand cooperation with national and international partners to implement the country’s national priorities in the field of health protection and improving the well-being of the population of Turkmenistan. ///nCa, 10 October 2023