Improving communication between practitioners and patients in Kyzylorda and Mangystau

Effective communication with patients is important as a vehicle for ensuring high-quality health services. Not only is patient communication important for improving patients’ satisfaction with services, but it is also important for improving health outcomes by improving adherence to care plans and treatments and gathering relevant health information that can help practitioners in providing people-centred care. This responsibility lies with all practitioners and other personnel.

Since 2016, WHO has collaborated with the Government of Kazakhstan in implementing a series of initiatives to improve patient centredness, including a series of workshops on patient-centred communication. The workshops have been organized in the Kyzylorda and Mangystau oblasts, including the six rayons of Karmakshy, Zhalagash, Syrdarya, Zhanaozen, Karakiya and Munaily.

The workshops allow doctors to learn how their communication can be more patient-centred, with the aim of improving health outcomes. Through reflective discussions, role play and peer-to-peer feedback, participants in these workshops are able to fine-tune their skills in patient communication. Previous studies have already shown that these techniques improve people-centredness but must be frequently updated and tested at the service level.

The WHO Country Office in Kazakhstan and the WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care engaged experts from Saint Louis University and Columbia University to provide these workshops.