The Ministry of Health is the central authority, responsible for setting organization and functioning standards for public health institutions, developing and financing national public health programs (including immunizations), data collection and drawing up reports on the population health status.

Primary health care services are mainly delivered by family doctors: independent practitioners contracted by the (public) health insurance fund but operating from their own offices. The reforms assigned family doctors to be gatekeepers of the system. A network of hospital outpatient departments, centre for diagnosis and treatment and office-based specialists deliver ambulatory secondary care. Inpatient and tertiary care are provided in hospitals; most are publicly owned and administered by the State. Reforms have commenced in public health.

The health policy principles adopted by the Ministry of Health include accessibility, universality, solidarity in funding health services, incentives for effectiveness and efficiency as well as service delivery linked to health care needs. Amendments of the laws were introduced to reflect the specific circumstances such as, the initially incomplete definition of roles of key stakeholders, lack of leadership and managerial skills at the level of the Ministry of Health. New financing and cost control mechanisms such as introducing of co-payments are envisaged. Hospital reform trough reassessment of their numbers and roles is ongoing.

http://www.who.int/countryfocus/cooperation_strategy/ccsbrief_rou_en.pdf (updated 2007) (accessed on 08.08.2011)

(validated September 2011)