Health systems in transition : Uzbekistan

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4. Physical and human resources
T
he years since independence have seen substantial reductions in the 
number of beds in acute care hospitals and further cuts are envisaged. In 
terms of acute care hospital beds per population, the country now ranks 
below the averages for the central Asian countries and the countries of the CIS. 
There has also been a decline in the number of physicians per population, while 
the number of nurses per population has remained largely constant in the last 
two decades. 
There is one medical academy, four medical schools and three regional 
branches, all of which are state-owned. Four main faculties for the training 
of medical doctors in medical schools exist: treatment (general medicine), 
treatment with an emphasis on teaching skills (pedagogy of general medicine), 
general paediatrics and sanitary-epidemiology. There are 72 professional 
colleges offering basic nursing training. Medical education has been revised, 
with an extension of undergraduate medical education from six to seven years 
and the replacement of early specialization with a more generalized orientation. 
Graduates are now qualified as GPs. The training of nurses has been extended 
to two years for nursing students with high school certificates and to three years 
for students with secondary school certificates.