The future of Belarusian healthcare discussed in Vilnius
On 25–26 September, Vilnius hosted the conference Medicine and Healthcare of the Future: From Current Problems to a New Model. The main organisers included the Salidarnast Association and the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP). The independent medical workers’ trade union Panacea, the Medical Solidarity Foundation, the White Coats media project and Doctors for Truth and Justice also took part in organising the event.
Over two days, doctors, researchers and trade union experts discussed the problems shaping the current state of Belarusian healthcare and possible approaches to its future reform. The agenda covered prison healthcare, the health consequences of imprisonment, access to medical care, workforce training, digitalisation, health insurance, occupational health and the experience of healthcare reforms in countries neighbouring Belarus.
One of the key aims of the conference was to discuss not individual measures, but the principles without which, in the participants’ view, systemic healthcare reform is impossible.
Doctor Stanislau Salavei, one of the leaders of the independent medical workers’ trade union, noted that even the current authorities acknowledge the problems within the system, but attempts to address them piecemeal do not change the model itself.
He identified the lack of reliable statistics as one of the fundamental problems. According to Salavei, without an accurate picture of the situation, it is impossible to assess either the scale of the problems or the effectiveness of future solutions.
Reform is impossible without changing the legal relationship between doctors and patients, decriminalising medical practice in appropriate cases, introducing independent medical expertise and establishing bodies of professional self-governance.
“Standards should be developed within the professional community. A Ministry of Health official cannot decide how a heart attack should be treated. That should be decided by practising specialists — cardiologists,” said the leader of the independent Panacea trade union.
Participants also discussed healthcare financing and the prospects for health insurance. Salavei cautioned against treating its introduction as a universal solution. In his view, without changes to medical decision-making, treatment standards and professional oversight, a new funding model may simply reproduce old problems in a different form.
“Trying to change the system quickly would lead only to disaster. We need to stabilise the situation, create a proper foundation and only then begin reform,” the doctor said.
The relationship between work and health was given particular attention in the conference programme. BKDP Deputy Chair Maksim Pazniakou gave a presentation on the regulation of medical workers’ employment from the perspective of the International Labour Organization. Maria Taradzetskaya spoke about the impact of workload on public health and the protection of workers’ health, while Sviatlana Ushchapouskaya addressed biological occupational risks and new approaches to protecting workers’ health.
For Salidarnast, this part of the discussion is of fundamental importance: the state of healthcare is connected not only with patients’ rights, but also with the working conditions of medical staff, their professional autonomy, occupational safety and their ability to defend their employment and professional interests.
On the final day, participants also examined the experience of healthcare reform in Germany, Poland and Ukraine, before moving on to group work and discussing possible steps towards the future transformation of the Belarusian healthcare system.
The conference was an attempt to move beyond simply identifying accumulated problems towards discussing a healthcare model in which decisions are based on reliable data, professional expertise and the interests of both patients and healthcare workers.
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