The meeting was held at the initiative of the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Montenegro, in order to present a candidate for the Regional Director of the World Health Organization for Europe Ms Nedret Emiroglu.
The Chairperson of the Committee reminded that on 14 September 2006 Montenegro became a member of the World Health Organization and that the cooperation of the Government of Montenegro, namely the Ministry of Health, and the World Health Organization was based on the Agreement on International Cooperation. He also reminded that the priority areas in the health sector were defined based on the Agreement, as follows: strengthening of the health system to provide better exchange of data, pharmaceutical policy and health system preparedness to emergency response, improving health promotion and preventing communicable diseases, improving communicable diseases response through monitoring and immunisation, as well as any other type of protection that affects the improvement of the health of Montenegrin citizens. He then voiced the expectation that the cooperation between the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization would be at the same or a greater level in the upcoming period.
He also recalled the successful cooperation between Montenegro and Turkey based on the Agreement signed between the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro and the private hospital Acibadem, where many patients from Montenegro had been treated and were still being treated.
Nedret Emiroglu, a candidate for the Regional Director of the World Health Organization for Europe, while presenting her program as a candidate, emphasised the importance of the existence of a health policy, which should be a priority in a country closely linked with the healthcare development, with the inclusion of all sectors in the cooperation. She pointed out that aim of her policy was the strengthening of the health system through state parliaments and committees in charge of health care within parliaments, therefore she would focus her policy on establishing a network of committees in charge of health care in the region in order to work on establishing cooperation in this manner. Furthermore, she pointed out the importance of high-quality medical equipment and procurement of medicines for providing high-quality healthcare, in order for the health system to earn the trust of citizens. As a very important priority of her program, she pointed out the work on the prevention of communicable diseases, giving first aid in case of various disasters, as well as the existence of room for improvement of staff and medical conditions for work in the health system.
Ms Ozan commended the good friendly relations between Montenegro and the Republic of Turkey and noted that the Turkish candidate for the Regional Director of the World Health Organization for Europe would have a positive impact on the improvement of the Montenegrin health system.
