15:01, 16 апреля 2026, Bishkek - 24.kg news agency , Anastasia BENGARD
Kyrgyzstan has conducted its first-ever analysis of the healthcare labor market. The study used public sector data from 2013 to 2023; the private sector was not included.
As Zuura Dolonbaeva, head of the Education Department at the Ministry of Health, reported today during the presentation of the report, the ratio of practicing physicians to population in Kyrgyzstan was 15.5 per 10,000 people in 2023.
This is lower than the average for countries in Central Asia and the European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, Kyrgyzstan has significant potential to improve staffing levels in the healthcare system, including doctors, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare workers.
An analysis of statistical data reveals that 96 percent of nursing staff and more than 65 percent of doctors are women. However, in certain regions, such as Bishkek, this figure reaches up to 80 percent.
An analysis of the number of healthcare workers shows a steady downward trend in the healthcare system’s staffing capacity.
Since 2013, the total number of healthcare workers has decreased by 18.5 percent, the number of doctors has decreased by 19.2 percent, nurses by 16.9 percent, and midwives by approximately 35 percent.
«The decline in the number of doctors and nursing staff is significant and points to systemic problems in staffing. This trend may be linked to labor migration, high workloads, and inadequate working conditions in hospitals,» Zuura Dolonbaeva noted.
She emphasized that the distribution of healthcare workers across regions is uneven. The highest concentration of doctors is in the cities of Bishkek and Osh. There are nearly twice as many doctors there as in Talas and Chui regions.
At the same time, the largest number of nurses and midwives is in Batken region—there are more than twice as many there as in Bishkek, Chui, and Issyk-Kul regions.
«Since 2013, there has been a decline in the availability of healthcare workers across all regions of the republic; the largest decrease in the number of doctors has been observed in Talas and Chui regions, as well as in Bishkek. The largest decrease in the number of nurses, midwives, and other specialists with secondary medical education was observed in the city of Osh, as well as in Osh, Chui, and Jalal-Abad regions,» Zuura Dolonbaeva said.
The analysis has been prepared for further planning of measures to strengthen and attract young specialists to the sector.