ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1608557
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Challenges in Post-Soviet Countries During and Beyond COVID-19, Volume IIView all 11 articles
Transformation of the private healthcare sector in the Republic of Kazakhstan following healthcare reforms
Provisionally accepted
Alibek Smagulov1Kuralbay Kurakbayev1Abylai Baimakhanov2Olzhas Zhandossov1Nazerke Abilkaiyr1Maiya Zhakupova2Magripa Bapayeva1Gulnara Kapanova3
Dinara Makhanbetkulova2*Galiya Alikeyeva2- 1Kazakhstan School of Public Health, Almaty, Almaty, Kazakhstan
- 2Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
- 3Al Farabi Kazakh national University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
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Background. In Kazakhstan, transformation of the private healthcare sector as the country transitioned from lower-middle-income to upper-middle-income status has rarely been a subject of academic debate. This study aimed to analyze of health sector indicators disaggregated by type of ownership over the period of 10 years (from 2011 to 2020). Methods. This was a retrospective crosssectional study, which was based on official healthcare statistics presented by the Ministry of Health.Relative change (RC) was computed to identify trends in changes over time and was expressed as a proportion with 95% confidence intervals. Results. In contrast with the government-owned health facilities, the overall number of private facilities increased over time, although this growth was less obvious in per capita terms. The number and density of private PHC facilities grew more substantially than those of outpatient facilities. PHC practitioners employed by the government-owned facilities admit more patients than practitioners of the private PHC facilities do. There is an uneven presence of the private health sector in different medical specialties with maternity, ophthalmology, dentistry, narcology, multidisciplinary, as well as palliative and nursing care being the most common. Conclusion Such data are needed by decision-makers to tailor public health strategies focused on the stewardship of the private health sector, which would help improve the availability and affordability of medical services.
Keywords: Private Practice, Government, public-private partnership, healthcare, Kazakhstan
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Smagulov, Kurakbayev, Baimakhanov, Zhandossov, Abilkaiyr, Zhakupova, Bapayeva, Kapanova, Makhanbetkulova and Alikeyeva. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dinara Makhanbetkulova, Kazakh National Medical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
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