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MongoliaHealth and Welfare
Health-Care Systems
Mongolia's government has made great efforts to provide
modern medical care to the inhabitants. In the 1980s, medical
care was free and was provided through a hierarchy of clinics and
hospitals. In rural areas, the lowest level of the system was a
medical station, staffed by a physician's assistant, serving
people within a thirty- to forty-kilometer radius. Above this was
a somon medical station, staffed by a physician, serving a
forty- to sixty-kilometer radius; an inter-somon hospital,
serving a seventy- to eighty-kilometer radius; and an
aymag general hospital covering a 150- to 200-kilometer
radius. The higher the level in the system, the more numerous the
medical specialties and the more sophisticated the diagnostic
equipment available. The lowest levels concentrated on acute
care, public-health work, and screening and referring cases up
the hierarchy.
As of 1985, Mongolia had approximately 4,600 physicians, 24.8
per 10,000 people. There were also about 8,500 nurses and 3,800
physician's assistants; many of the nurses and the physician's
assistants specialized as midwives, although some medical
personnel were trained in midwifery only. Medical care was
provided by almost 1,200 clinics staffed by physician's
assistants, 290 clinics staffed by physicians, and by 1986, 112
hospitals. The structure of medical specialties reflected both
the needs of the young and rapidly growing population and the
concentration of scarce resources on public health, control of
epidemic diseases, and the health of the working population. The
most common medical specialty was pediatrics, which accounted for
21 percent of all physicians in 1985. The next most common were
general practitioners, 15 percent; obstetricians, 6 percent;
public health specialists, 6 percent; and physicians specializing
in the prevention and treatment of epidemic diseases, 6 percent.
Government statistics listed only twenty-seven (0.5 percent)
oncologists and no cardiologists; however, the existence of a
large cancer research facility and the practice of bypass surgery
techniques suggest a greater interest in these areas than the
statistics indicate.
In spite of efforts to distribute medical facilities and
specialists evenly, there was a marked concentration of
physicians and hospitals in Ulaanbaatar and other major cities.
In 1981 Ulaanbaatar had 49 percent of Mongolia's physicians and
an average of 42.9 physicians per 10,000 people. The cities of
Darhan and Erdenet had 21.7 and 18.8 physicians, respectively,
per 10,000 people; low ratios of 9.5 physicians per 10,000 in Uvs
Aymag and 10.2 per 10,000 in Hovsgol Aymag were also reported.
Mongolia cooperated closely with the Soviet Union in medical
research and training. Soviet specialists held seminars in
Mongolia and helped to build and to operate such special
facilities as an oncology center and a 600-bed isolation hospital
for infectious diseases in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia was an active
member of Comecon's Commission on Cooperation in Public Health,
and it participated in World Health Organization (WHO) projects
on maternity and child health, environmental protection, and
training of medical technicians and mid-level health-care
personnel.
By 1981 Mongolia claimed to have eliminated smallpox, typhus,
plague, poliomyelitis, and diphtheria, and to have reduced
sharply the incidence of other infectious diseases. In the past,
disease was spread through the use of contaminated drinking water
and from such sources as lice, which were common among the
herders, who seldom bathed or washed their clothing. Clean
drinking water for the herders, who often shared water sources
with their animals, continued to be a problem, but much effort
was put into health education. The Mongolian Red Cross, an
organization that cooperated with the Mongolian Revolutionary
Youth League, focused on preventive medicine and health
education. It sent mobile teams to factories and herding
collectives to teach hygiene and sanitation and to hold special
workshops on infant care and the health needs of the elderly.
Although traditional Mongols were averse to bathing, their modern
descendants patronized a network of spas. Following the Soviet
and East European pattern, Mongolia established sanitoriums where
workers and such deserving individuals as holders of the Order of
Maternal Glory went to rest, to take the waters, and to follow a
medically prescribed regimen of swimming, sunbathing, and
moderate exercise. The Council of Mongolian Trade Unions operated
a network of sanitoriums that used the country's many hot springs
and mountain lakes. The network annually could accommodate 20
percent of the country's factory and office workers during the
brief summer season. So popular were the spas that aymag
authorities established their own sanitoriums to provide
therapeutic holidays for collective herders.
Data as of June 1989
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