During the meeting, the Head of State heard the interim report on implementing the state health development program referred as "Densaulyk" and information on executing the tasks assigned to the Ministry.
The President of Kazakhstan made a point of preventing diseases and stressed the role of citizens in forming a healthy nation.
- It is necessary to draw citizens in strengthening their own health. Human health depends on medicine only 10-15%. Everything else depends on a person himself, Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
The Head of State has dwelled on the issue of promoting a healthy lifestyle among the population, and focused on the relevance of the task of increasing the life expectancy of Kazakhstan’s citizens on average up to 80.
In turn, the Health Minister informed the President of Kazakhstan on improving the basic indicators of public health.
- In all respects, the situation is stable. Life expectancy increases. Maternal mortality tends to decrease. Infant mortality has been declining for several years as well, Elzhan Birtanov said.
The Minister of Health spoke about the measures taken by the Ministry to improve the health status and pointed to the importance of identifying diseases at an early stage.
- Starting in 2012, Kazakhstan has been actualizing free medicines program. It has a very good effect, since almost 2.5 million people receive free medicines to treat 50 diseases, including arterial hypertension, diabetes and cancer, Elzhan Birtanov said.
Elzhan Birtanov has reported to Nursultan Nazarbayev about the results of measures to improve the quality of primary health services provided and the introduction of digital technologies in the healthcare system as well.
During the meeting, the Head of State separately focused on the issues of state regulation of prices for medicines and the fight against corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.
- After my order to look into the prices, the head of Pharmacy Committee, the management of SK-Pharmacy, and five regional leaders were detained. Because of illegal actions with contracts there is a baseless growth of prices for medications, the President of Kazakhstan said.
Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed to ensure timely implementation of the tasks in hand and to organize appropriate control in the healthcare sector, including medicines procurement.
The Head of State also recalled Birtanov’s personal responsibility for the supervised industry.
