The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the healthcare sector and highlighted the need for its rapid reform.

In the context of the crisis, the states, with varying degrees of effectiveness, introduced new methods of managing medical institutions and providing medical care. Resilience has become a mainstay of health policy to meet emerging challenges and prepare for future crises.

As the authors of a new World Bank report note, the concept of “health system resilience” includes several elements: improving infrastructure and improving the quality of medical services, improving the institutional environment of the health system and improving emergency management systems, and increasing health care financing.

The organization's experts analyzed national practices for transforming healthcare systems in five countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Key recommendations for improving healthcare resilience include:

• Ensure the continuity of essential health services
• Increase investment in the development of primary health care
• Introduce flexible methods of financing and payment for medical services
• Increase the professional potential and improve the working conditions of health workers
• Promote the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, improve the quality of interdepartmental information exchange
• Improve the quality of monitoring and evaluation of medical care