~~This year, our country is celebrating the 25th anniversary of gaining the status of the permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan, enshrined in the Resolution of the UN General Assembly.
~~This year, our country is celebrating the 25th anniversary of gaining the status of the permanent neutrality of Turkmenistan, enshrined in the Resolution of the UN General Assembly.
The large-scale programmes and projects aimed at supporting the sustainable development of the state and society, the wellbeing of the people and the prosperity of our beloved Motherland have been implemented successfully during the years of neutrality. These include the Saglyk State Programme, developed by the esteemed President, that is celebrating the 25th anniversary in July 2020.
The international status enables Turkmenistan to enhance partnerships with foreign countries and the major international organisations, including those in the healthcare sector to achieve a high quality of health care and services.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov noted the great success and significant progress in developing the national healthcare sector, improving the health of the people and preventing diseases have been achieved. The improvement and promotion of the health of every person in our country is among the priority aspects of the state policy, the Turkmen leader emphasises.
For the first years since the adoption of the Saglyk State Programme, family medicine has been introduced in primary health care, voluntary health insurance has been launched and the use of hospital beds have been optimised. In the subsequent years, a network of modern medical institutions equipped with advanced technologies was created. In Turkmenistan, the effective measures have been taken to develop the health resort sector and pharmaceutical industry, to modernise the material and technical base of the healthcare sector, to enhance disease prevention activities and to achieve cost-effectiveness of health care. This made it possible to bring the national healthcare system to the international level, to significantly expand and to intensify cooperation in this sphere. A solid digital health framework has been developed. The public health system has been created in the country.
Due to its status and the policy pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, our country has become a venue for global forums on numerous occasions when Turkmenistan stood not only as a partner of the United Nations and its agencies in particular, but also as an organiser, including those on the pressing health problems. For example, Ashgabat hosted two high-level WHO conferences on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in 2013 and 2019. The participants in the first conference adopted the Ashgabat Declaration, and Turkmenistan received the World Health Organisation Certificate for the outstanding contribution to the prevention of non-communicable diseases at the second conference. The Commemorative Medal and the Certificate of Appreciation of the World Health Organisation were awarded to the President of Turkmenistan for his contribution to the fight against tobacco use.
As for the international recognition of the achievements of our country in the health sector, it should be noted that Turkmenistan holds a number of certificates and awards. These are the certificates for the elimination of dracunculiasis, poliomyelitis, malaria, measles and rubella, the achievement of universal salt iodisation, the leadership in iron fortification of wheat flour and the maintenance of high vaccination coverage for children within the Government-Funded National Immunisation Programme. Last year, the reference (virology) laboratory of the Centre for Public Health and Nutrition of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance Service, Ministry of Health and the Medical Industry of Turkmenistan received the status of the National Influenza Centre.
In January this year, the laboratories of the departments of laboratory and instrumental, molecular and genetic and enzyme-linked immunosorbent studies and the departments of food bacteriological studies affiliated with the departments for food and nutrition studies at the Centre for Public Health and Nutrition received international accreditation and certification of a member of the European Accreditation Cooperation from the Latvian National Accreditation Bureau (LATAK) State Agency for compliance with the international standard ISO/IEC Arta 17025: 2017 “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories”. Besides, M. Garriyev State Medical University of Turkmenistan holds a prestigious European Quality Award, and is inscribed on the Avicenna Directory of the World Federation for Medical Education.
The promotion of reliable partnership in health care, science and education between Turkmenistan and the United Nations, the European Union and dozens of countries of the world, the publication of textbooks and manuals and the adoption of advanced scientific and methodological practices and modern teaching methods also contribute to the development of these spheres, the leader of the Turkmen state says.
International certificates and awards are vivid evidence of the recognition of the national healthcare model on a global scale.
