According to Y. Birtanov, in 2017 the Ministry launched 6 initiatives of the project "Modernization of the Healthcare Sector," built on 7 directions of the State program. Thus, the activities of the State Program are implemented on the principles of project management.

Within the framework of project management indicators, 4 of them were achieved, with the exception of the indicator "Labor productivity growth." Out of 123 measures of the State program envisaged in 2017, 122 have been carried out, 1 has not been fulfilled.

Within the framework of the first direction of public health development, 24 events have been completed. An institutional framework for activities has been created, and the Roadmap developed jointly with international partners is being implemented. The main activity for the protection of public health is primarily aimed at the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle among the population. For continuity of child health protection, school medicine is transferred from the education system to healthcare, uniform school feeding standards and a suicide prevention program are also being introduced.

In the second direction on the integration of all health services, measures have been taken to ensure the availability of primary health care. These measures helped achieve a reduction in maternal, infant mortality and mortality from malignant neoplasms in the whole country.

On the third direction for ensuring the quality of medical services, according to the 82ndstep of the Nation’s Plan "100 Concrete Steps," a Joint Quality Commission has been established whose tasks are the approval and implementation of new standards and technologies for the provision of medical care. Work is being carried out to increase the availability and convenience of public services by providing them in electronic format. As a result of the activities, the target indicator of the level of satisfaction with the quality of medical care increased to 46%.

In the fourth direction, there is an increase in the availability, quality and safety of medicines. On behalf of the Head of State, a draft law on the regulation of prices for all medicines has been drafted and submitted to the Parliament. In 2017, 25 new long-term contracts were concluded with domestic producers. This allowed to increase the share of procurement of domestic medicines to 48% in physical terms. The growth of the volume of domestic production was 33% or in monetary terms — 45 billion tenge.

Improvement of the legal framework and transparency of procurement allowed to save 18.2 billion tenge, which were spent on additional purchase of medicines. The measures taken allowed to increase the physical volume index of the pharmaceutical industry by 43%.

Within the framework of the fifth direction, preparations are being made for the introduction of compulsory social health insurance. In 2017, a risk analysis was carried out and due to the high number of self-employed people, the implementation of the CSHI was postponed.

The sixth direction is the effectiveness of human resource management. The deficit of medical staff was reduced due to changing conditions of admission to practice for pediatricians, obstetrician-gynecologists and other highly demanded specialties. The modernization of medical education through the strategic partnership of medical universities with leading foreign universities has begun. A model of a university clinic and medical organizations are being integrated into universities.

Within the framework of the seventh direction with the purpose of further development of the health infrastructure on the basis of public-private partnership and modern information and communication technologies, a new state standard of the network of healthcare organizations was approved. This year, the Unified Prospective Plan will be approved. For the purpose of digital modernization of healthcare, pilotless paperless management of medical records in 4 regions (in Karaganda, Akmola, Kostanay and West Kazakhstan regions), coverage of medical organizations with information systems was 75.5%, and computer equipment was increased 2.5 times. 56% of the organizations have access to the Internet.

"On the whole, out of 35 indicators of the State program, 30 have been achieved, 5 — have not been achieved, including 1 due to the postponement of the CSHI implementation. There is an improvement in terms of indicators of general and maternal mortality," Y. Birtanov summed up.