Health expert and Ilia State University associate professor Nino Mirzikashvili has raised concerns about the Ministry of Health’s failure to publish Georgia’s National Health Reports, which have not been made public since 2017. Speaking on BMG TV, she said that experts have long been calling for the release of these reports, emphasizing that access to them is essential for transparency and accountability in the health sector.
According to Mirzikashvili, the National Health Accounts are crucial for understanding how money is distributed across Georgia’s healthcare system. They show the financial contributions of the state budget, the private sector, and citizens’ out-of-pocket payments, as well as the relationship between healthcare spending and the country’s GDP. She noted that while the Ministry’s funding has been increasing annually in absolute terms, the reports are necessary to analyze whether these resources are being used efficiently.
Mirzikashvili suggested that although the reports are not public, the Ministry likely processes the data internally and uses it for decision-making. “I can’t tell you why they might be hiding [the reports]; maybe the results are not good, and they don’t want to make them public,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are fewer studies being conducted now, as many were previously supported by international donors. For genuine sector transparency, the National Health Reports must be accessible so that we can base discussions on real data rather than assumptions.”
When BMG asked Health Minister Mikheil Sarjveladze in 2024 why the reports were not published, he stated that all relevant data was already available to the public, even if not in report form. Asked again in 2025 when publication would resume, the minister replied, “As soon as this document becomes a report of the level and capabilities that are necessary.” The National Health Accounts, established by a 2006 government resolution, are intended to record financial flows, monitor policy outcomes, and guide funding decisions, objectives that remain difficult to achieve without their regular publication.
