The Ministry of Health is legally empowered to provide medical and preventive health care services. It establishes and operates hospitals and other health care centers, trains health personnel, and supervises private health facilities. The ministry also supervises the medical and health care personnel who work for the public sector. The pay for state-employed physicians is considerably lower than the earnings of private-practice doctors, and medical facilities are still concentrated in urban areas. Consequently, although steadily improving, access to medical and health care in most rural areas is inadequate.
