Demography, health promotion, digitalization. The Ministry of Health on the key areas of the five-year quality plan

The next five years, 2025-2029, have been declared a five-year period of quality. It will concern all spheres of life of the state and society. For healthcare, the key areas will be increasing the birth rate, strengthening public health, digital transformation, developing high-tech types of medical care, etc. BELTA learned more about this from the Health Ministry.

Demography

The objectives of the demographic policy will remain unchanged: to stabilize the population and create conditions for its subsequent growth. The core is family policy aimed at strengthening the institution of the traditional family, supporting large families, and protecting motherhood and childhood.

The Health Ministry noted that Belarus is among the ten countries with the lowest infant mortality rates. The country ensures 100% of births are carried out by qualified doctors. A multi-level system of maternal and child health protection is in place. To increase the birth rate, one free IVF attempt is guaranteed. It is proposed to discuss the possibility of a second free attempt.
The Republican Scientific and Practical Center "Mother and Child" has been successfully performing high-tech intrauterine surgeries for 15 years. A breast milk bank has been organized, a mobile resuscitation and advisory team and an educational and training center operate. Cell therapy is used to correct psychoneurological disorders in premature infants. Model centers for teaching parents the basics of safe life for children have been introduced and are operating.

The foreign policy situation that has developed over the past two years has left a certain imprint on the development of the export direction. At the same time, according to statistics, in January-October 2024 , the export of Belarusian drugs in the republic amounted to $ 170 million, the growth rate compared to the same period in 2023 is 100.4%.

Health promotion

An important component of improving demography is health promotion. The state policy in the field of healthcare is aimed at strengthening public health protection, increasing the availability and quality of medical care for all citizens, regardless of place of residence. The key task is to strengthen epidemiological safety and reduce the incidence rate of the population. It is planned to ensure universal coverage of the population with primary health care services, including through improved medical examinations and medical screenings. To reduce the risk of morbidity, preventive work will be strengthened to detect non-communicable diseases early (circulatory and respiratory systems, neurological, oncological and endocrine diseases, injuries).
Outpatient clinics continue to form general practitioner teams consisting of a physician, a physician assistant, and a general practitioner nurse. A new procedure for conducting medical examinations of adults and children has been introduced in the country.

In order to ensure epidemiological safety, work on the prevention of infectious diseases continues. The state preventive project "Healthy Cities and Towns" is being implemented. As of January 3, 2025, all administrative territories of the country, represented by 392 settlements, are involved in the project.

Screening

Since 1990, population-based screening programs in the field of obstetrics have been carried out in Belarus, which include shifting screening to the first trimester. Neonatal screening is carried out at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center "Mother and Child" for all newborn Belarusian babies and includes testing for five diseases: phenylketonuria, primary congenital hypothyroidism, cystic fibrosis, galactosemia, and congenital dysfunction of the adrenal cortex. Preparatory work is underway to switch neonatal screening to the tandem mass spectrometry method, which will expand the screening program to 12 diseases.

In general, screening for breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, type II diabetes mellitus, etc. is carried out throughout the republic.
High-tech treatment methods are used to treat patients with stroke: intravenous thrombolysis using recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, mechanical endovascular thromboextraction, endarterectomy, angioplasty and stenting of the carotid and vertebral arteries.

High Technologies

It is necessary to expand the volume of high-tech types of medical care in the field of cardiac surgery, neurosurgery and transplantology, traumatology and orthopedics, oncology and plastic aesthetic surgery, as well as dentistry. In 2024, 492 organ transplant operations were performed. In the field of cardiac surgery, the total number of operations performed on the heart and coronary vessels was 20,259. In the field of traumatology and orthopedics, the number of large joint endoprosthetics is growing. According to preliminary data, 21,349 large joint endoprosthetics were performed in the republic in 2024, including 13,921 hip joints, 7,415 knee joints, and 13 shoulder joints.
An equally important task is the development of healthcare infrastructure. In order to improve the availability of medical care to the population in rural areas, 84 mobile feldsher-midwife stations have been organized in the republic (of which 14 are in the Brest region, 16 in the Vitebsk region, 7 in the Gomel region, 12 in the Grodno region, 28 in the Minsk region, and 7 in the Mogilev region).

The construction of outpatient and polyclinic healthcare organizations is planned in Polotsk, Gomel, Zaslavl, Fanipol, Krichev, and Minsk. New medical buildings (specialized departments) of hospitals will appear in Postavy, Gomel, Grodno, Zaslavl, Minsk District (Minsk Regional Clinical Hospital), and Mogilev. The reconstruction of medical buildings is planned in Brest, Pinsk, David-Gorodok, Vitebsk, Chausy, Grodno, Minsk District (Republican Clinical Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation and the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Children's Oncology, Hematology, and Immunology), and Minsk.

Digitalization

Digitalization will become an important area of ​​improving the healthcare system. A unified telecommunications infrastructure is being introduced with 100% inclusion of healthcare organizations in it, and new methods of personalized medicine using information and communication technologies are being gradually mastered. It is planned to introduce an intelligent system for remote health monitoring (telemedicine, robotization of high-tech operations, mobile digital trunking communications with the creation of a single regional network).

BELTA.