Dear Mr. EVETOVITS,

Thank you for possibility to participate SHA peer learning meeting in Budapest and for technical assistance and an exploratory three-day in-country mission by HQ and Barcelona Office to discuss with key stakeholders the future NHA/SHA institutionalization process.

With best regards,

Dear Ms. Goginashvili, dear Ketevan,

Thank you for your email and the letter from the MOH. With this email I acknowledge receipt of the letter from the Deputy Minister and will send a response once we agreed on the plan of work regarding this request for technical assistance.

We are pleased to hear that NHA is applied as a monitoring tool to track health expenditures in Georgia. WHO headquarters (HQ) has launched the revised SHA 2011 methodology a few years ago and last December the Global Health Expenditure Database by WHO was presented based on SHA 2011 methodology. From now on, all countries are asked to report according to SHA 2011 on a regular basis, including classifications on financing sources. Therefore your request for technical support is very timely.

We discussed your request with HQ and WHO Country Office last week and we propose a step-by-step approach.

First, HQ with support of Barcelona Office will organize a SHA peer learning meeting for selected countries from  Central Asia and Eastern Europe on 12-14 June, 2018 in Budapest. It will be a technical meeting where the SHA 2011 methodology/classifications will be discussed in the details. The country delegates are expected to bring country data to work with during the meeting. We would like to invite 2 experts from Georgia, involved in production of National Health Accounts, to this meeting. The travel costs will be covered by HQ. The WHO CO in Georgia will provide further details of this meeting to the MOH.

Second, we propose to organize an exploratory three-day in-country mission by HQ and Barcelona Office to discuss with key stakeholders the future NHA/SHA institutionalization into routine health information system and the scope of further technical assistance required. Based on this, we can develop the work plan, propose an international consultant to work with and explore further opportunities to capacity building. The in-country three-day mission is proposed for some time in July after the technical meeting in Budapest in June.  

From the WHO Barcelona Office, our consultant, Baktygul Akkazieva will be coordinating this work. Please let us and the WHO Country Office know if you are agree with this approach.

I look forward to further strengthening our collaborating with the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia and other key stakeholders in the area of health accounts.

Best regards,
Tamás

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Dr Tamás Evetovits

Head of Office

WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Strengthening|Programme Manager (Health Financing) Division of Health Systems and Public Health, WHO/Europe
Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, La Mercè Pavilion Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 167, 08025  Barcelona, Spain|Mobile: +34 675 788 903|GPN: 77619|http://www.euro.who.int/financing

Dear Dr. EVETOVITS,

Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (MoLHSA) has been producing National Health Accounts (NHA) on an annual base since 2005. NHA reports are used widely in the processes of policy-making such as policy analysis/research, health care state budget planning, designing health policies and reform strategies, and monitoring and evaluating the progress of previously implemented policies. NHA provide important input for health financing reforms in the country and for strengthening Georgia’s health system in general. The chapter on HIV/AIDS-related expenditures of the UNGASS reports is prepared on the basis of NHA data. Moreover, for publication in the Global Health Expenditure Database, the MoLHSA annually provides WHO HQ with NHA based on its request.

The NHA is institutionalized by the Governmental Decree #11, January 18, 2006 “On Institutionalizing National Health Accounts in Georgia” and #220, August 10, 2010 “On Approval of the Rule for Production of the Health System Performance Assessment, National Health Accounts and National Health Reports”.

The MoLHSA is still applying NHA methodology developed by WHO in 2003 (Guide to producing NHA for low-income and middle-income countries), whereas the revised System of Health Account (SHA) 2011 methodology has been released and countries are recommended by WHO to transfer to SHA 2011 methodology. In previous years we had an opportunity to apply to the one-off technical support but unfortunately it’s not sufficient.

Considering this, we request more solid technical support including trainings to transform from old NHA to SHA 2011 methodology and look into more proper institutionalization SHA into routine health information system in order to improve the quality of current NHA data.

We would highly appreciate if you could explore the possibility to provide technical support to the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia in developing SHA 2011 methodology within the health information system of Georgia.

We are looking forward to hearing from you about possible technical assistance that could WHO provide to MoLHSA.

Sincerely yours,

Ketevan Goginashvili, MPH

Head of Health Policy Division

Health Care Department

Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs

144 Tsereteli Ave

Tbilisi 0119, Georgia

Tel: +995 32 251 00 38 ext 1108

Mob: 995 577717984