The Committee held a working meeting with the representatives of the Health Ministry and WHO, backed by the EU, and discussed the investment package of non-contagious diseases – the final version of the document introduced by the experts.
The Chair of the Committee, Zaza Lominadze, the First Deputy Health Minister, Tamar Gabunia and WHO Representative to Georgia, Silviu Domente opened the meeting and addressed the attendees. Lominadze thanked WHO and the EU for supporting the development of a new national strategy for non-contagious disease prevention and control and the development of the investment package of non-contagious diseases with the engagement of international experts.
“The document, based on the substantiations and high-reliability financial calculations is important to offer proper recommendations and policy to the Government and society to mitigate the burden of non-contagious diseases,” he stated.
The experts – United Health Futures representative, the leader of the institutional context analysis, and the leading international economist of the investment package of non-contagious diseases in Georgia (University of Limerick, Ireland) provided the document, describing the current economic burden of the non-contagious diseases, determining the priorities, estimating further steps and the benefit of the investments. The experts agree that investments in non-contagious diseases that are cost-effective will be beneficial as well in health and social terms.
“The experts analyzed the findings and challenges existing in the prevention of non-contagious diseases. Numerous findings have been underlined at the meeting, including the Law on the prohibition of tobacco. Everything is feasible within the shortest term to reduce the healthcare expenses and make proper investment and put proper accents,” he added.
The document has been developed with the expert and financial support of WHO and the EU in cooperation with the Health Committee, Health Ministry, and the National Disease Control Center.
The investment package of non-contagious diseases has been developed within the EU-WHO joint program “Solidarity for Health: Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic and Building a Resilient Health Sector in the Eastern Partnership”; the hereof support is a part of the allocation from the EU – 400 ml EURO for the protection of the vulnerable groups and economic improvements.
