The Minister of Healthcare Akmaral Alnazarova also spoke during the Government session on the completion of the 2023-2024 school year and the organisation of recreation, leisure and employment of children during the holidays, primeminister.kz reports.
Today, schoolchildren make up 19 per cent of the total population of Kazakhstan and more than 57 per cent of the total child population of the country. In this regard, prevention, timely accessible medical care and health improvement of schoolchildren are one of the most important tasks of the country's health care system.
There are more than 7 thousand schools in the country. Each school is assigned to a polyclinic serving the given territory. The staffing level of school nurses is 90 per cent," Akmaral Alnazarova informed.
Taking into account that the school year is coming to an end, it should be noted the importance of quality health improvement activities for children until the next school year. Preventive examinations of children up to 17 years of age are carried out annually at the PHC level.
At the end of 2023, 5.5 million school-age children were covered by preventive examinations, of which 515,000 had various diseases detected and 210,000 were taken on a dispensary register. In the structure of morbidity among children, the first place is occupied by diseases of the digestive system (9.7%), the second place by diseases of the nervous system (9.1%) and the third place by eye diseases (8.3%)," the Minister said.
In the coming season, children's health improvement is planned to be carried out in 10 thousand camps. The Minister noted that for full and quality health improvement works before the start of the season it is necessary to obtain a certificate confirming the compliance of children's camps with sanitary and epidemiological requirements. Based on the experience of last year, the need for timely work on obtaining permission to open a camp is determined. Thus, in 2023, 10 per cent of permit applications were rejected due to the identification of deficiencies.
In addition, in the course of control over the activities of recreational organisations, many violations of the established requirements were revealed, including 16 camps that operated without permits.
Therefore, during the preparatory work for the current season, specific specialists were assigned to each camp by the owners of out-of-town camps as part of the measures to obtain a sanitary-epidemiological conclusion. To date, 163 out of 182 planned camps have been consulted, 45 seasonal camps have been monitored.
In addition, the management of summer recreational organisations has held more than 100 training seminars, published 83 materials to explain the requirements for recreational organisations.
The Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Committee has organised a hotline, which can be contacted verbally or in writing in case of complaints about the work of summer recreation organisations," the head of the department informed.
In the regions it is necessary to speed up the work and already at the preparatory stage before the start of the season to ensure the following:
- completion of repair and renovation work on buildings;
- cleaning and landscaping;
- staff training;
- obtaining a BMS before the children arrive.
During the period of organisation of summer recreation, parents' actions when choosing a camp are no less important.
We recommend parents to use information about out-of-town camps that have received an opinion, posted on the website of the Ministry, as well as on the websites of the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Control and its territorial departments. Compliance with the established requirements will ensure safe holidays for children in the coming season," Akmaral Alnazarova summarised.
This information may not be reproduced without reference to Kazakhstan Today. Copyright of materials of News Agency Kazakhstan Today.