A regular meeting of the Council for Cooperation in Healthсare of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held on October 13 in Minsk – capital of Belarus. Participants discussed 26 agenda items related to a broad array of healthcare issues in the CIS space.
Meeting delegates agreed that over a 30-year independence period, Member States of the Commonwealth have built a coordinated system of cooperation; created an effective legal framework that allows developing flexible relationships in health care and epidemiological well-being. It was noted that the rapid increase in the number of chronic non-communicable diseases, which became the main causes of death, and the emergence of new infectious diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, require joint efforts of the ministries of health of the CIS countries and the adoption of new decisions.
The meeting participants discussed the provision of psychological and psychiatric care to victims in emergency situations, countering the spread of infectious diseases, cooperation in the field of public health and health informatization, the development of telemedicine cross-border interaction.
Representatives of the CIS countries made the following decisions prepared by the CIS Council for Cooperation in Healthсare:
- approved the Procedure for maintaining the register of specialists of sanitary and epidemiological organizations for joint work in a public health emergency situation,
- approved the drafts of the Joint Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance and the Decisions of the Council of CIS Heads of Governments on Antimicrobial Resistance,
- supported the initiative of the Russian Federation on the holding of an international web conference and an interstate exercise on the response of health systems to health emergencies of a biological and social nature,
- supported the initiative for the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates on COVID-19. It was decided to create a relevant Working Group to develop proposals on this issue,
- approved the document on the creation of the Expert Council on transfusiology,
- approved draft Regulation on the basic organization for health technology assessment, quality control and financing of medical care. It is planned that this status will be given to the Center for Expertise and Quality Control of Medical Care of the Ministry of Health of Russia, which is the P4H member organization from Russia.
The meeting was attended by Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, who shared his views on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of emergency preparedness and response.
It is planned that the next meeting of the CIS Council for Cooperation in Healthсare will be held in 2022 in Kazakhstan.
Source: https://cis.minsk.by/news/20820/v_minske_proshlo_zasedanie_soveta_po_sotrudnichestvu_v_oblasti_zdravoohranenija_sng
