CIAO DATE: 04/04

Kosovo/a Standing Technical Working Group, Fourteenth Meeting: Kosovo's Health Care System: Invasive Procedure Needed

Robert Curis

July 17ne 6, 2002

European Centre for Minority Issues

ECMI's Citizens' Support Initiative

ECMI Expert Group of Health and Social Welfare

The 14th meeting of the Standing Technical Working Group (STWG) organized by the European Centre for Minority Issues, Kosovo, on 17 July 2003 brought together approximately 25 local and international experts on issues of health and social welfare in an open Civic Forum. The aim of the forum was to generate critical dialogue between party representatives and Assembly members, members of civil society, and a team of experts on key issues of health policy development, debating needs for reform and highlighting areas of particular attention.

ECMI Kosovo succeeded in bringing together a diverse panel of Kosovo experts and stakeholders. The transition from an UNMIK administered Department of Health to a Kosovar-run Ministry of Health has been turbulent and largely ineffective. Party politics have obstructed ministry officials, health care administrators and practitioners from carrying out their jobs. Of course, the ones to suffer the most have been the patients. The Civic Forum brought together participants from all points along the political spectrum and the discussion was concrete and productive, thanks in large part to adept moderating by members of ECMI's Expert Group for Health and Social Welfare.

The meeting dealt with the following aspects of Kosovo's health system:

1. The University of Pristina Health Centre
2. Public Health in Kosovo
3. Kosovo's Health Law

The outcome of the meeting was a comprehensive list of policy recommendations and benchmarks for reform, together with a timeline for implementation (see Section V.).

Full text (PDF format, 34 pages, 93 KB)