The health care sector is supervised by the Ministry of Health through health care departments of oblast executive committees and the health care committee of the Minsk city council. The national-level health care institutions are subordinate directly to the Ministry of Health.

In addition to state-run institutions, medical care is also provided by departmental agencies and privately-owned (non-state) health care companies.

Arrangements were made to create interregional medical centers. National research and practical centers were established, each representing a complex of multifunctional departments. There are now seven such centers: Cardiology, Mother and Child, Child’s Oncology and Hematology, Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology, Hematology and Transfusiology, Neurology and Neurosurgery.

In March 2007 a law was passed in Belarus regarding transplantation of organs and tissues. The law provides for international exchange of organs and tissues on a charge-free basis in case a suitable donor and recipient are identified.

Sanitary and epidemiologic examination of the population in Belarus is performed by a network of state-owned health care institutions, the main one being the National Hygiene, Epidemiology and Health Protection Center. At the local level, sanitary and epidemiologic services are provided by oblast, town and district hygiene and epidemiology centers.

Considering the danger of HIV spread, the National AIDS Prevention and Counteraction Center was established. In 2008 the Belarusian Red Cross Society spent Br1.1 billion on a massive anti-AIDS campaign.

Belarus has an advanced medical rehabilitation system. Treatment in health resorts forms part of this system.

Every Belarusian health resort has its specialization and provides a whole range of modern-day physiotherapy services.

In 2008 there were 101 sanatoria and spa treatment organizations in Belarus, with a total of 24,500 beds, including 62 centers for adults and nine for children, 19 children’s rehabilitation and recuperation centers, 16 student recuperation and preventive clinics.

There are 265 recuperation organizations in Belarus for 47,500 beds, including 185 children’s recuperation camps.

In 2008, 919,700 people, including 850,600 children (128,700 of them suffered the impact of the Chernobyl catastrophe, and 1,200 are disabled children), recuperated from the state budget and the state social security fund.

Some 82,300 foreigners visited Belarusian health resorts in 2008, most of them from the CIS countries. For more information on the recreation services provided by Belarusian health resorts, please visit the websites of the following organizations: TsentrKurort (www.otpusk.), Belgoszdravnitsa (www.mshp.) and Belprofsoyuzkurort byminsk.by(www.kurort.by).