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Georgian Ministry will work with UK health authority

By Messenger Staff
Thursday, March 4
On March 3 Alexander Kvitashvili, Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (MoLHSA) and Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

“This Memorandum of Understanding sets out the cooperation between the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence of the United Kingdom in aspects related to the improvement of quality and access to the health care in Georgia through the development of evidence-based clinical guidelines on the management of high priority disease”, said Alexander Kvitashvili

The cooperation will be aimed at (i) helping MoLHSA build the necessary strategic and technical expertise to support the development and application of evidence-informed standards in day-to-day policy and practice in Georgia and identify key areas where further capacity building is needed and (ii) developing/strengthening the framework - including structures, methods and processes - for adapting evidence-based clinical guidelines and implementation support documents in the Georgian healthcare setting, using existing NICE guidelines and the underlying evidence base as the starting point.

“The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is looking forward, through its international programme of activities, to contributing - with the support of the World Bank - to the ongoing reforms in Georgia. The Georgian leadership is committed to improving the quality and efficiency of its healthcare system and it is a privilege for NICE to be able to share its technical, operational and strategic experience,” said Sir Michael Rawlins

To achieve the abovementioned objectives an official contract will be signed under the terms of the World Bank financed Health Sector Development Project and the EU financed Primary Health Care Reform Support Project. Other project(s) with different funding might be invited to contribute to this collaboration subject to agreement between the parties.

“The World Bank is supporting the Government of Georgia in its far-reaching healthcare reforms. I hope that this partnership will promote the development of appropriate processes and institutions to improve the quality of medical care for the people of Georgia,” said Asad Alam, World Bank Regional Director in the South Caucasus.