TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM IN GEORGIA: CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES

Abstract

Public health protection is a core function of the state, aimed at preventing disease and promoting health through organized social efforts, including environmental sanitation, the control of infectious diseases, public hygiene education, and early disease detection. Epidemiological research also enables the rational allocation of resources to priority health problems, which is especially important for a low-income country such as Georgia.
In 1995, the reorientation of the Georgian healthcare system laid the foundation for a new approach to public health, based not only on the medical model but also on preventive healthcare and effective state epidemiological surveillance. Unlike most
post-Soviet countries, Georgia – apart from the Baltic states – fully abandoned the Soviet sanitary-epidemiological model and established a new public health infrastructure based on European principles, drawing significantly on the experience of the US
Centers for Disease Control, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and Israeli public health institutions.
This reform separated supervisory and executive functions and led to the creation of two distinct bodies: the Department of Public Health and the Department of Sanitary Supervision and Hygienic Norms. Although the reform faced challenges,
particularly insufficient state financing and weak integration of primary healthcare into public health functions, it played an important role in strengthening epidemiological surveillance, improving disease control, and developing preventive measures. In the
modern globalized world, the role of public health continues to grow, making stronger public health policies and closer cooperation between the state and the private sector increasingly necessary.