Mission

The mission of health and social welfare sector is to facilitate an establishment and system that delivers quality health care efficiently and equitably, and that will guarantee social welfare for all.

Vision

The VISION of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is based on three key principles :

Universal coverage

Ensuring optimal access to basic healthcare services to all members of society including those in hard to reach places

Social justice

Ensuring that those in greatest need have easy access to care

Equity

Ensuring that access to care is based on need rather than ability to afford

Goal

The goal of the health sector, which contributes to the vision of the country's development is to have a healthy population, living quality and productive life by 2020.

In the new system it is proposed and designed to have the Research Coordinating Unit (RCU) servicing a Central Institutional Review Board (NH-IRB) to process and clear research protocols before submitting them to Central Research Ethics Review Committee (NH-REC) for their review and clearance. The system comprises of the following steps:

For the purposes of these Guidelines, Health Research includes research on pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical radiation and imaging, surgical procedures, any records under the health system and biological samples, as well as epidemiological, social, population based studies and psychological investigations; and clinical trials are excluded.
According to current arrangements the Principal Investigator (PI) must submit the proposal to the Director General Health Services (DGHS), in her capacity as Chairperson, Ethics Committee, Ministry of Health (MOH) via the Research Coordination Unit (RCU) of the MOH. The documents to be submitted include...