Health white paper outlines 15-year healthcare changes 2023
The white paper on health contains a comprehensive strategy to reform the healthcare sector in stages over the next fifteen years.
The 57-page document, published on the website of the Parliament, outlines four healthcare reform strategies:
- Transforming healthcare service delivery;
- Enhancing health promotion and disease prevention at all levels;
- Ensuring sustainable and equitable healthcare financing; and,
- Strengthening the foundation and governance of the healthcare system.
Under these four pillars, reforms include the establishment of a national disease control center, the revision of fees at all public hospitals and clinics, and the provision of incentives to promote a healthy lifestyle.
Government hospital and clinic prices will be reviewed, and healthy living incentives will be offered.
The reforms will be implemented in stages, with short-term initiatives lasting between one and five years, followed by medium-term (six to ten years) and long-term (eleven to fifteen years) initiatives.
The policy paper also addresses a variety of challenges faced by the healthcare system, such as financial constraints, manpower shortages, inadequate facilities and equipment, an aging population, an increase in non-communicable and chronic diseases, mental health, and fee disparities between hospitals and clinics across the country.
According to the white paper, the proposed healthcare reforms are of a long-term nature and will require ongoing revisions and modifications in response to new information, technological advances, and emergent models.
“The measures proposed in this white paper can be further refined based on recommendations from the government, the monitoring body, or the parliamentary committee after discussions and debates in Parliament,” the document states.
