Press releases

MINSK, 22 June (BelTA) – Belarus ranks first in the world in terms of access to healthcare, along with Canada, Director of the Alexandrov National Cancer Center Oleg Sukonko said when speaking at the 5th Belarusian People’s Congress on 22 June, BelTA has learned.

“The WHO Regional Office for Europe says that the Belarusian system of healthcare is among the best in the world. In terms of access to healthcare, the country ranks first globally, along with Canada,” Oleg Sukonko pointed out.

He emphasized that such achievements would have been impossible without the development and upgrade of the medical infrastructure and facilities. Some 130 centers have been commissioned and renovated over the past five years. “This has allowed us to introduce technology-intensive methods of treatment and advanced technologies. Now we offer an immense range of healthcare services,” Oleg Sukonko emphasized.

He said that the establishment of national research centers that develop and introduce cutting-edge treatment technologies is a major achievement of the Belarusian healthcare system. “All in all, in 2015 the Belarusian healthcare institutions provided services to some 160,000 foreign patients from 122 countries. The task to triple the export of healthcare services in 2010-2015 was fulfilled. In fact, the export increased 3.7 times. We will continue working in this direction,” the delegate said.

Oleg Sukonko pointed out that Belarus is developing a sustainable model of a budget-funded healthcare system. “We can be proud of this model. Free healthcare services guaranteed by the Constitution remain accessible for all parts of the population. Thanks to this, we have managed to achieve impressive results recognized by experts from different international organizations. It s not by chance that Belarus was ranked 47th out of 143 in Bloomberg’s annual ranking of countries with the most efficient health care, ahead of the United States and Russia,” Oleg Sukonko stressed.