Vietnamese Health Programme launched

Vietnamese people doing morning exercise at Sword lalke

The Ministry of Health organised a ceremony to launch the Vietnam Health Programme on February 27, on the occasion of the 64th anniversary of Vietnam Doctor's Day.

The launch ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The event is connected online with 63 provinces and cities and more than 700 districts, towns and cities across the country.

Earlier, the programme was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc under Decision No 109/QD-TTg dated September 2, 2018. It sets out the tasks and solutions to achieve 28 targets in 11 prioritised health areas, including nutrition, physical training, child healthcare, smoking-alcohol impact prevention, environmental sanitation, and food safety.

Speaking at the event, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised the public healthcare sector’s continuous progress and pointed out its shortcomings.

The Government leader noted that, despite high average life expectancy, Vietnamese people generally have to live with diseases for roughly 10 years in their life, meaning a decline in life quality. Their physical stature has also improved little over the past few years, he added.

The average height of Vietnamese is 164.5 cm for males and 153 cm for females and has only increased by 3 cm after 25 years.

The PM called for inensified awareness campaigns on healthcare, particularly the need for a healthy lifestyle, which includes regular exercises, no smoking, limited alcohol drinking, and regular health check-ups.

Following the launch a series of activities took place nationwide, such as health check-ups, health consultancies, mass physical exercise, and cycling for health.