Following unscheduled inspections by Kazakhstan's Ministry of Health, 104 dental clinics and 270 procedure rooms have shut down. Most were operating without licenses and violating drug storage rules, reports infohub.kz.
The ministry noted that 104 dental clinics voluntarily surrendered their licenses, and 270 procedure rooms also ceased operations on their own. The Health Ministry forcibly closed only 17 illegal dental clinics.
As a result of the inspections, about 555 fines totaling 100 million tenge were imposed on "unscrupulous" dental clinics, and 16 million tenge were collected from private procedure rooms. "Thus, a total of 702 administrative penalties were imposed for over 116 million tenge," the ministry specified.
The largest number of voluntarily closed procedure rooms was recorded in the Jambyl region (96 facilities) and Astana (87 facilities). The most private dental clinics shut down in the Aktobe region (7 clinics) and Kyzylorda region (3 clinics).
According to the Health Ministry, the main issues identified remain unlicensed activity and violation of drug storage rules. Also noted were a lack of qualified personnel and emergency kits (medications and instruments).
Previously, former Health Minister Yelzhan Birtanov criticized the approach of "mass closure" of private clinics. In his view, such measures could lead to longer queues and higher treatment costs.