Starting in October, Kazakhstan will begin mass audits of how easily patients can get appointments with doctors. The move was prompted by Health Minister Akmaral Alnazarova's frustration that people cannot book appointments with primary care and specialist doctors even when slots are available, infohub.kz reports.
"If a person cannot get into a clinic and book an appointment with a doctor, what kind of access to medical care can we talk about? These are basic things that must be ensured at the local level," the health minister said.
According to Laura Akhmetniyaz, head of the Committee for Medical Control, the audit showed that patients still struggle to book appointments on their own. And although doctors' schedules at clinics are drawn up, free appointments with general practitioners and specialists often turn out to be closed or unavailable in practice.
"The problem is not only the availability of schedules, but also the real ability of a patient to book an appointment independently. Based on the identified shortcomings, recommendations will be sent to medical organizations," Akhmetniyaz said.
It is noted that starting next month, the situation with appointment booking at clinics will be monitored twice a week.
In turn, Alnazarova instructed regional health departments to keep this issue under constant control. She emphasized that the healthcare system must be accessible to Kazakhstanis both online and offline.
"The ability to book an appointment with a doctor is the daily work of the entire healthcare system at the local level," the minister noted.
In late August, Kursiv wrote that the republic would revise its approach to financing clinics that have shown poor results for several years in a row.