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Description
In 2019, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the State Audit Officecriticizedcised the state of Lithuania''s health system and highlighted the need for reform. At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Health started working on a health system reform. One of the purposes of the reform - increase social and civic engagement, participation in voluntary and community activities, and mutual trust, public social responsibility – strengthening CSOs, improving the environment for NGOs to operate, and providing opportunities for public engagement and active participation in addressing issues of public concern in the areas of health care and access to social services.
GMEI, together with project partners, highlights the following issues:
- Lack of trust in health system public institutions by health system NGOs and patients and lack of health system public institutions oversight;
- Health NGOs do not have effective, legally based guidelines and a common strategy for working with health system public institutions on issues of concern to the Lithuanian health system and patients.
The project addresses the following target groups: health system NGOs and patients.
To address the problems identified, GMEI, together with project partners, will carry out the following activities:
- Propose new legal instruments, thereby increasing the effectiveness and transparency of cooperation between health system public institutions, NGOs and patients;
- Encourage closer cooperation between health NGOs and health system public institutions;
- Empower target groups through the organization and provision of legal aid, education and training;
- Introduce a cross-sectoral cooperation strategy based on effective and legally-backed cooperation;
- Educate the medical community, patients and the general public using a variety of outreach methods.
Summary of project results
In 2019, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the State Audit Office have all criticised the state of Lithuania''s health system and highlighted the need for reform. At the end of 2021, the Ministry of Health started working on a health system reform (Reforma). The Reform derives from
the implementation of the National Progress Plan 2021-2030, approved by Government Resolution No. 998 of 9 September 2020. One of the purposes of the Reform – increase social and civic engagement, participation in voluntary and community activities, and mutual trust, public social responsibility – Strengthening civil society organisations, improving the environment for NVOs to operate, and providing opportunities for public engagement and active participation in addressing issues of public concern in the areas of health care and access to social services.
Regardless of the objectives of the Reform, health NVOs have not been involved in the discussions on the Reform. GMEI, together with LMS and SKGS, initiated the drafting of a letter to the HSE* (signed by 18 representatives of health NVOs) on the involvement in the planning of the Reform and submitted it
to the HSE (https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/sveikata/682/1560321/medikai-isplatino-kreipimasireformuojant-sveikatos-prieziuros-istaigu-tinkla-mediku-organizacijos-paliktos-uz-pasitarimu-duru).
GMEI, together with LMS, SKGS and LŽSHA, highlights the following issues:
1) Lack of trust in SSVAI by health system NVOs and patients and lack of SSVAI oversight;
2) Health NVOs do not have effective, legally based guidelines and a common strategy for working with SSVAI on issues of concern to the Lithuanian health system and patients.
Focus groups:
1) Health system NVOs;
2) Patients.
The Project:
1) Propose new legal instruments, thereby increasing the effectiveness and transparency of cooperation between SSVAI, NVOs and patients;
2) Encourage closer cooperation between health NVOs and SSVAI;
3) Empower target groups through the organization and provision of legal aid, education and training;
4) Introduce a cross-sectoral cooperation strategy based on effective and legally-backed cooperation;
5) Educate the medical community, patients and the general public using a variety of outreach methods.
The Project became the basis for strengthening the activities of health system NGOs, their opportunities to get involved in the activities of SSVAI, decision-making, legislation, etc. Trained health system NGOs actively and efficiently presented drafts of legal acts and proposals for their change and achieved results. In the same way, the health system NGOs actively and professionally began to express their public, civil, legal and political positions in the press, talking about the problems of the system and ways of solving them. Previously, there was no space for such a constructive, economic, legal and fact-based conversation between health system NGOs and SSVAI. SSVAI recognized the capabilities and capacities of health system NGOs to perform state functions, so state functions were newly transferred to the Lithuanian Chamber of Dentists - licensing of specialists and supervision of their activities.
The project was beneficial to GMEI and the Project partners, as it further strengthened their mutual ties and relations, and created the basis for extended cooperation.
Health system NGOs and their representatives, having acquired new knowledge and competences, begin to participate more actively in the control of SSVAI activities, SSVAI decision-making processes (working groups), legislation and supervision of its implementation.