The Kyrgyz Government started reforms in Health sector in 1995 with focus on health financing and primary health care. These reforms resulted at introduction of family medicine (as opposed to high end hospital medicine), while medical education system was still preparing highly specialised graduates based on the old soviet standard curriculum. In addition to this, due to internal migration and less attractiveness of the rural areas, remote hospitals are understaffed by 20% and 40% of medical personnel will retire in the coming few years. These factors influence the quality of medical services provided in rural areas.

The main goal of the project is to ensure that the quality of health services delivered is improved countrywide, and especially in rural areas, through a reform of the Medical education system towards international standards. Through supporting the reforms of the medical education system, SDC will contribute to achieve the objectives set in the National Health Strategy “Den Sooluk”, by improving quality of health services delivery countrywide.

The project’s beneficiaries are at 3 levels:

• admitted students at undergraduate level: 2’200 students (550 per year)
• 80% of those students that will continue postgraduate education
• medical personnel being retrained annually (2’300/year)

• Students in all undergraduate medical universities in year 1-6 have improved their knowledge and practices through a new curriculum and better teaching methods
• Family doctors and nurses improve their knowledge and practices through greater access to and better quality continuous medical education training
• Family medicine residents/interns have improved their knowledge and practices through the implementation of a reformed postgraduate education and a functioning mentoring system 

Principaux résultats antérieurs:  

In the last four years SDC has provided technical assistance to the Kyrgyz State Medical Academy (KSMA) and the Ministry of Health through the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève to reform the undergraduate medical education system. This support has resulted in the revision and approval of a new standard curriculum for “General Practitioner”. In September 2012, 550 new students were admitted to “General Practitioner” specialty and they are to follow the new international standard curriculum on undergraduate medical education. The introduction of the new curriculum was accompanied by institutional changes at the KSMA, which reformed its internal management system and established an educational committee on clinical and pre-clinical subjects that is responsible for elaborating, revising, evaluating, and approving the educational standards and training curricula.

Phase 1 01.04.2013 - 30.04.2017   (Completed)