Healing the Health care System of Montenegro

Since 31^st of September 2015, CeMI has been implementing the project „Healing the Healthcare System of Montenegro“. This project is realized within the program "Criminal Justice Civil Society Program (CJCSP)", funded by the US Embassy in Podgorica. With this project, CeMI aims to contribute to the decrease of the corruption level in Montenegro within healthcare sector. Through the project CeMI will work on increasing awareness of citizens on their patients’ rights and provide Free Legal Aid to all interested patients, for implementation of their rights. Moreover, CeMI will try to affect on the legal and startegic framework for the fight against corruption in procedures for public procurement in healthcare system and procedures for manufacturing, registration and distribution of medicines. The project will last until June 2016. Through the research conducted in 2013, that has for the first time opened issue of corruption in healthcare system of Montenegro, CeMI has identified main problems in these areas, and through the discussion with main stakeholders, we came to a consensus on main issues that need to be tackled in order to improve situation in given areas. Key causes of corruption defined through the research are: lack of consistent and independent monitoring mechanism for anticorruption policies in this area, low level of protection of patients’ rights and low level of awareness of citizens on their rights, conflicting and unclear regulations on public procurement in the healthcare, lack of clear and transparent procedures for manufacturing, registration and distribution of medicines. CeMI will conduct many activities including monitoring of the implementation of strategic framework for the fight against corruption in healthcare system of Montenegro, formation of legal expert team that will provide free legal aid and creation of the Working Group for Drafting Guidelines on Public Procurement in Healthcare.