Kyrgyzstan faces a significant imbalance in the geographical distribution of healthcare workers, with a much higher concentration in urban areas than in rural regions, officials said during a presentation of a healthcare labor market analysis.
According to representatives of the World Health Organization, in 2023 the number of doctors in cities was four times higher than in rural areas. The density of physicians stood at 35.1 per 10,000 people in urban areas, compared to just 9.5 in rural communities.
Cities also have twice as many nurses, midwives, and other mid-level medical professionals. Their density reaches 61.6 per 10,000 people in urban areas, while in rural areas it is only 36.8.
«The shortage of doctors is most acute in remote and hard-to-reach settlements. In such areas, the number of doctors makes up only 13.5 percent of the national average, while the number of mid-level medical staff is about half of the national average. There are healthcare facilities with no doctors at all, and much of the workload falls on nurses. This raises the question of whether they have sufficient education and competencies to provide quality services,» WHO representatives noted.
The analysis is based on public sector data from 2013 to 2023, excluding the private sector.
