MINSK, 13 August (BelTA) – The World Health Organization is discussing expansion of functions of nursing staff at a session organized by the Belarusian Health Ministry in Minsk on 13 August, BelTA has learnt. Twenty-five experts from eight countries came to Minsk to discuss redistribution of functions of medical professionals in a bid to enhance availability, quality and efficiency of medicine. Galina Perfilieva, Regional Adviser of the Health Sector Human Resources at the WHO Regional Office for Europe said that the expansion of functions of nursing staff is a possible solution of many issues in healthcare. She noted that in many countries the ageing of population and increasing rate of chronicle diseases lead to a greater burden on healthcare. However, the number of medical professionals is not increasing or is even falling. More than that, many qualified medical professionals go abroad. To resolve this issue, medical workers all around the world start assuming new functions: trained nurses take over some of doctor’s functions, social workers perform nursing functions. This has led to a higher quality and affordability of medical assistance, especially in remote areas. Head of the Country Office at the World Health Organization in Belarus Yegor Zaitsev noted that “this helps reach another goal – the primary aid becomes cheaper”. “It does not mean that nurses will take away some functions from doctors, it means that nurses will be able to perform some of these functions. After all, the deficit of highly qualified medical workers is expected to make up 1 million in the European Union alone by 2020,” Galina Perfilieva said. In recent years, the enrollment at Belarusian medical universities has increased. “Some five years ago we had about 1,700 medical students, this year their number made up 2,500. The same trend can be observed in the training of nursing staff,” chief of the human resources policy department at the Belarusian Healthcare Ministry Sergei Sychik said. “The human resources problem is dynamic, but manageable. There is no big outflow of medical professionals from Belarus compared to other countries,” he said.

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