As part of ‘The Far East of the Future’ track of the Eastern Economic Forum’s business programme, an expert discussion entitled ‘Territorial Planning in the Health Care System’ will be held. The session is organized by the Healthy Life project of the Roscongress Foundation.

Satisfaction of the population with the health care system is one of the important indicators of the state of society, and its assessment, based on the actual availability and quality of medical care, gives an understanding of the effectiveness of the efforts undertaken by the government and society to improve it.

Discussion participants include Victor Fisenko, First Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation; Vladimir Yuschuk, Deputy Chairman of the Government of Sakhalin Region; Anastasia Khudchenko, Deputy Head of Primorye Territory Administration, Ministry of Health of Primorye Territory; Elena Zhidkova, Head of the Clinics Network, Russian Railways-Medicine – A Branch of Russian Railways, and General Director, Russian Railways-Medicine; Elena Drozdova, Acting Deputy Governor and Head of Department of Health of the Chukotka Autonomous District; and Victor Ushakov, Executive Director, Health Industry Center of Sberbank. The session will be moderated by Olga Kobyakova, Director, Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics of Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

“Russia’s vast territory – from the Arctic to the subtropics – is home to more than 190 nations. There are 11 time zones, large megacities and small settlements where only a few families may live. And the task of the health care system is to provide all people with affordable medical care. Here a good example will be the federal project ‘Modernisation of Primary Health Care in the Russian Federation’. Its implementation is built on the principles of competent territorial planning and accessibility of medical care for every resident of our country,” says Olga Kobyakova, Director, Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics of Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

The above approach is based on sound territorial planning in the field of health care. Its main objective is to create conditions for the harmonious development of a health care system that ensures wide accessibility of medical care and increased efficiency of medical services, the volume, types and quality of which should correspond to the level of morbidity and the needs of the entire population. Such an ambitious task requires improvement of the health-care system, depending on the specific features of each region, such as the size of its territory, geographical and climatic conditions, population density, transport accessibility of medical organizations, and the level and general structure of morbidity.

Experts will discuss what role territorial planning plays in the accessibility of medical care, how to properly manage resources and competently plan the location of medical infrastructure facilities, as well as what data and the participation of which government structures are necessary to form an optimal system of medical care for the population.