Minister of Healthcare Yelzhan Birtanov said it at the meeting of the Government of Kazakhstan.

Recall, the measures taken to improve the quality of primary health care were considered at a meeting of the Government. An important component of accessibility and quality of medical care for primary health care is the level of wages of primary health care workers.

So, in the minister's report it was said that the monthly expenses for one district physician of PHC are 1.89 million tenge. At the same time, about 60% are sent to the wage fund for employees. As a result, when calculating only 24% of the total wage fund is the salary of a physician and nurses of primary health care, and 12% of the salaries of specialized professionals. Accordingly, the average salary of a PHC physician is approximately 150,000 tenge. The remuneration of the specialist ranges from 40-60,000 tenge, which indicates a low level of wages in the country.

At the briefing Birtanov noted that to solve this problem, a phased increase in tariffs for consultative and diagnostic services is planned, which will allow to raise wages to primary-level employees by 20% by 2020.

"In 2019, the piecework pay of general practitioners, profile specialists will be introduced with a phased increase in tariffs for their services within the guaranteed volume of free medical care. This will allow raising the level of salaries of doctors to 20%," the minister said.

In addition, he said that the Ministry of Health plans to expand the surcharge for achieving quality results as early as next year.

"General practitioners and nurses, who will move on the disease management program, achieving a reduction in the complications of major diseases, will receive surcharges," Birtanov informed.

“The Qazaq Times”