Such data is given by the Minister of Health Alla Nemerenko. For example, the queue for primary examination of patients with suspected cancer has decreased from 6-8 months to a few weeks, and for hip or knee prosthetics – from several years to less than one year.
As the Minister notes, previously family medicine doctors could not refer patients for examinations, only specialists. Now they have general access to an appendix with all types of examinations, and only expensive procedures, such as angiography or MRI, require the decision of a specialist.
“We used to have no such equipment at all in the district hospitals. Now seven or even nine district hospitals have CT scanners. But they serve usually five neighboring districts each. There is still a queue, a waiting list. It is important that this waiting list is not too long, because the patient has a problem that needs to be solved today. And I want to say how much these lists have been reduced over the last three years. We’ve increased the amount of equipment in public facilities and we’ve reduced the waiting lists. For example, for a primary patient with suspected cancer at the Cancer Institute, the waiting list was from 6 to 8 months. Now the examination is carried out in a few weeks, maximum 2 weeks”, – said Alla Nemerenko on the air of Radio Vocea Basarabiei.
According to her, the waiting list for joint prosthetics used to be 4-5 years, now it is less than a year.
“Can you imagine: a patient who cannot move, with a very serious problem, almost equivalent to disability, accompanied by severe pain, had to wait 4-5 years. Now we have reduced the queue to less than one year. I want to give you an example: when we were in Estonia, out of curiosity we asked what their waiting list was for hip replacement surgery. 3 years! This means that we have moved very well,” said Alla Nemerenko.
The Minister also noted the increase in the number of cataract surgeries – from 7,000 in 2021 to 14,000 now: “The waiting list for cataract surgery is also shorter than in EU countries”.
At the same time, she explained why “it can’t be even faster”: “It depends on the number of departments, both in public and private institutions. We attract all private providers who can do these operations. It depends on the number of doctors who can do these operations and the equipment. So we cannot do more surgeries than the whole system of the country allows.”
