The organisation of medical services in Belarus is governed by the 1993 law, 'On Health Care', which requires that spending on health care should be no less than 10% of national income.
In common with other parts of the former Soviet Union, Belarus has a large number of doctors (41,700 physicians - including dentists - in 1994 and 110,900 junior medical staff). The country has 834 hospitals with 121,200 beds. There are 511 outpatient clinics, including 372 rural polyclinics and 732 outpatient departments in hospitals, 422 in rural hospitals. The situation has been summarised thus:
The conditions of treatment in some clinics are desperately poor. Patients are asked to bring their own dishes and food, buy their own medicines. Sometimes they have to bear with negligence and rudeness of staff. All these factors are increasing the public dissatisfaction with the level of health care. 10
Reform to the health care system is being carried out in two phases (1998-2002; 2003-2007). In the first phase attempts have been made to increase health care expenditure to 7.5% of GDP over a five-year period; in the second phase, greater attention will be given to the development of both primary care and also specialized centres of provision. A preferential tax regime for non-profit making organizations is planned.11
The Belarusian Children's Hospice has had an effect on governmental thinking in the area of palliative care, leading to the establishment of the post of co-ordinator of palliative care within the Ministry of Health. However, BCH remains possibly the only NGO officially licensed to provide medical home care in Belarus.
Health care expenditure (US$) per capita, Commonwealth of Independent States and Mongolia
Source: WHO Regional Office for European Health for All database and HiTs
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