The Ministry of Health and Medical Industry of Turkmenistan will purchase 400 UAZ ambulances for the hospitals and polyclinics in the regions and rural administrative centres. Over the past years it is the second large consignment of medical equipment and machines: recently 200 medical cross-country vehicles were delivered to the country and distributed among the rural healthcare and sanitary-and-epidemiologic institutions.

The ambulances to be delivered to Turkmenistan till the spring of 2009 are supplied with necessary equipment and apparatuses – for providing medical care to and carrying patients, rendering medical consultations to the people in the remote rural settlements. The ambulances will allow specialists of the sanitary-and-epidemiologic institutions to render the services in the region difficult of access.

Expanding the capacity and improving the rural healthcare infrastructure is a priority of the President’s Programme on the improvement of the social and economic conditions in rural areas. The Programme is in full swing. The projects on construction and reconstruction of over 30 medical centres, hospitals, apartment houses and health centres have been launched in the urban and rural areas throughout the country. The Government heavily invests in such projects. The level of equipment and services rendered by the healthcare institutions to patients will meet the international standards and requirements of the World Health Organisation.

Construction of standard houses and healthcare institutions, equipment health centres with modern medical equipment and apparatuses will offer a powerful incentive to develop the primary health care infrastructure in rural areas that is of paramount importance for the development of the national healthcare system. It will considerably improve the quality of medical services rendered by family doctors, first of all, who are to carry out the large-scale disease prevention activity among the population.

In the nearest future the maternity and child health care centres Ene Myakhri – the analogues of the Centre in Ashgabat will open the doors in all the regions of the country. Thus, the people of Turkmenistan irrespectively of the place of residence will get an access to medical assistance in compliance with the international standards.