On 27 April, 2023 the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted a multilateral seminar on healthcare audit in the context of COVID-19.

The representatives of the supreme audit institutions of Latin America and the regional audit institutions of the Russian Federation took part in the event.

 There is no doubt that the dialogue between Russia and Latin American countries on healthcare is timely and relevant,

– Mr. Timur Makhmutov, Director of the Department for International and Regional Cooperation of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, said at the opening session of the seminar. 

Healthcare plays a special role in socio-economic development and in enhancing the quality of life. Supreme audit institutions, as guarantors of the efficient management of public resources, especially contribute to the efficient healthcare.

On behalf of SAI Russia, Mr. Roman Shcheglevatykh, Director of the Department of Healthcare and Sports Audit, delivered a keynote speech at the seminar. He underlined the crucial role of information technology in the healthcare system development and shared the results of a thematic audit, which revealed a number of shortcomings that hinder the implementation of key objectives in healthcare digitalisation. For example, the audit found that medical specialists often have to use several unrelated information systems, which results in multiple entries of the identical information and inconsistencies in the records of medical care provided. This is detrimental to the engagement of healthcare actors in information interactions.

We have formulated recommendations based on the results of the audit. We believe that their implementation should promote optimisation of the healthcare personnel's workload, make medical care more accessible, and accelerate the healthcare digital transformation,

– Mr. Roman Shcheglevatykh noted.

Mr. Andrey Brekhov, Chairman of the Chamber of Control and Accounts of Kursk region, highlighted the personnel-related challenges in regional healthcare, which mainly involve shortage of primary care physicians, especially in rural hospitals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges to the healthcare systems of each and every nation. Ms. Gisela Capriglioni, Director of the Department of the Management Control of the Central Administration and National Retired and Pensioners Social Service of the General Audit Office of Argentina, outlined audit findings on COVID-19 emergency procurement, including vaccines procurement. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Argentina reported that 130 million vaccines from 10 different vaccine providers had been procured as of August 2022. SAI Argentina found that information on the vaccine procurement on the Ministry's official website did not always correspond to the contracts. In addition, the contracts for the procurement of three vaccines had not been translated into Spanish. The auditee, once it had the opportunity to check findings, carried out the suggested changes such us updating the web-site and sending the corresponding translated documents.

Mr. Alexandre Giraux Cavalcanti, Auditor of the Department of External Control for Sustainable Development of the Federal Court of Accounts of the Federative Republic of Brazil, elaborated on the design of audit procedures and the implementation of the healthcare performance audit in Brazil. SAI Brazil has created a special website to share knowledge in this area and to support regional audit bodies. The audit methodology has been tested and adapted through pilot audits. In order to develop auditors’ professional skills, the SAI provided training sessions. For the period between July 2022 to December 2023 there are 52 audits planned to identify the causes of inefficiency in Brazilian public hospitals. Mr. Dagomar Henriques Lima, Auditor of the Department of External Control for Sustainable Development of the Federal Court of Accounts of the Federative Republic of Brazil, also gave comments during the discussion.

In conclusion, participants noted that the exchange of experiences contributes to the development of best practices in addressing current healthcare challenges and expressed their hope for future contacts.