August 1, 2013
Moldova
The Ministry of Health of Moldova approved national standards for medical services in the field of home care by regulation no. 851 on July 29, 2013. The new regulation significantly affects the improvement of health care for seniors and people with disabilities and their families in Moldova. It also represents the transition from institutional care to home care services that is quite common in western countries.
The fundamental intention was to develop standards to ensure quality social and health care in a family environment for the elderly and sick people. Social and health care services at home were introduced in 1998. Before 1998, such services had not existed in Moldova. The 2008 law provides funding for these services from health insurance, even though this is a very low amount.
Standards specify who is eligible for this type of care, what services can be provided, what extent and by whom services can be provided. At the same time they regulate the content of the work of multidisciplinary teams to deal with confidential information and set the requirements for organizations that offer services. The content standards are also the ways of communicating with patients and their family members, as well as the list of tasks that the home care service provides.
MD. Tamara Adasan, HomeCare Association Director, was involved in the development of the standards. The HomeCare Association is an organization specializing in the provision of home care services that Caritas has been cooperating with, mainly focused on the establishment of high quality home care services in Moldova.
The accepted national standards for medical and social services at home are a big success in this area. The next step now will determine the appropriate amount of reimbursement for individual health care and social achievements from national health insurance. The HomeCare Association will try to affect this process and draw inspiration from the Czech example.
