Health expert calls for allowing doctors to register as self-employed

At an open dialogue with members of the medical community on July 15, health expert Abror Abduqodirov suggested including doctors in the official list of professions permitted to work as self-employed individuals in Uzbekistan.

Currently, self-employment status is only available to nurses and traditional medicine practitioners (tabibs), while fully qualified physicians are excluded from this legal framework. As a result, many doctors provide informal consultations outside working hours or in their homes.

“This area remains unregulated. If we allow doctors – perhaps initially only in therapeutic fields – to register as self-employed, we could provide convenient medical services to a broader portion of the population and bring such practices into the legal sphere,” said Abduqodirov, noting that similar models exist in countries like the United Kingdom.

He added that many healthcare workers are leaving the profession due to rigid schedules, heavy workloads, and a lack of flexibility. Meanwhile, patients increasingly require accessible and personalized care – something the current system, centered around institutional facilities, often struggles to provide.

Abduqodirov argued that enabling private practice through self-employment would bring transparency to doctors’ services, create additional tax revenue, and reduce informal, off-the-books medical activity.

A more flexible system that allows physicians to independently organize their patient appointments, he said, would help retain young professionals in the sector and make the medical field more attractive. It would also expand the range of patient–doctor interactions, including remote consultations, and improve access to medical services.

Allowing doctors to register as self-employed could also raise the quality of care. “With personal responsibility comes greater professionalism, a stronger sense of trust, and ongoing efforts to improve qualifications,” Abduqodirov noted.

He also pointed out that Uzbekistan already has a presidential decree permitting family doctors to offer home consultations, but said that the policy has yet to be fully implemented.

Notably, from September to December 2022, doctors in Syrdarya region were allowed to conduct individual family medical practice without establishing a formal clinic. They were permitted to provide care from their homes or rented spaces.

This initiative was part of a presidential decree aimed at “bringing primary healthcare services closer to the population and improving the effectiveness of medical care.” It was originally intended to be gradually expanded to other regions of the country following the pilot phase.