Viet Nam Human Rights
Vietnam works to improve healthcare network
20/5/15
Efforts made by Vietnam to renovate its health care system
were highlighted during a speech delivered by Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim
Tien at the opening ceremony of the 68th session of the World Health Assembly
in Geneva taking place from May 18-26.
During her remarks, Tien said Vietnam, a low-middle income
country with a population of over 90 million, has achieved good health outcome
indicators from the millennium development goals, above a number of countries
with similar per capita incomes.
Grassroots healthcare networks have constantly been
invested in and developed. All communes have health centres—60% of which have
medical doctors—and all villages have health workers, she noted, adding that
Vietnam is striving to achieve health insurance coverage rate of 75% in late
2015 and 80% in 2020.
Recently, Vietnam joined the global health security system
pilot and made significant progress in public health emergency preparedness and
response. Through substantial efforts, Vietnam has successfully controlled emerging
diseases and pandemics such as SARS and the avian flu, Tien reported.
She shared that Vietnam has enacted various policies in a
bid to foster a more resilient health system, focusing on health finance
reform, investment in infrastructure and human resource development.
The government is subsidising health insurance premiums for
the poor, near-poor, ethnic minorities, children under 6 and people living in
disadvantaged areas as well as encouraging private investment and
public-private partnership (PPP) in infrastructure and hi-tech medical
equipment. Administrative procedures in healthcare have been made more
transparent to satisfy the general population.
Vietnam has effectively used domestic and official
development assistance resources to increase investment in modern hospitals at
the tertiary and grassroots levels. As a result, nearly 800 new district and
central hospitals and hundreds of commune-level health centres have opened,
improving universal access to high-quality health services.
The country has also focused on developing human resources
in the sector by improving the quality of medical training for health workers
and birth attendances, especially in mountainous areas, and promoting
development of traditional medicine.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has successfully employed advanced
procedures such as organ transplants, stem cell transplants and endoscopy
robots. Currently, 12 vaccines for the expanded immunisation program are
domestically-produced.
In an interview with the Vietnam News Agency, Minister Nguyen
Thi Kim Tien said one of the highlights of the WHO’s assessment of Vietnam's
national regulatory system for vaccines was being recognised for meeting
international standards.
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All comments [ 10 ]
Vietnam has achieved levels in basic health indicators that are remarkably better than other developing countries with similar or even higher per capita incomes.
Much of this achievement has been the result of widespread practices of promoting social solidarity and a relatively egalitarian distribution of wealth and income.
nother factor that has contributed to good levels of health status by such a poor country is a health system that has wide population coverage with many modem and cost-effective disease control interventions and primary health care services delivered through an extensive grassroots health services network.
Public investments and recurrent budget support for the grassroots health network are being given priority attention.
These efforts are expected to yield gains in terms of further reductions in morbidity and mortality from preventable causes through more effective disease prevention, health promotion, and appropriate early treatment at the household, village, commune and district levels.
Even as large health gains are expected from anticipated improvements in community health, large numbers of sick patients still require higher level clinical care for which public hospitals remains the almost exclusive provider.
A voluntary donation recruitment program, based on public education campaigns, and organizing blood collection sessions, focused on retaining donors that meet screening standards.
The key objectives of the health sector, according to this strategic plan, are: improved health status, as reflected by morbidity, and mortality reductions; greater access to public health services, especially the poor; and, increased quality, and cost-effectiveness of health services.
How can public spending be oriented to meet the strategic objectives of the Ministry of Health
Expected outputs include an invigorated partnership with the Ministries of Finance and Planning and Investment, new skills and capacities, and revised thinking along with findings and proposals relating to the focus and modalities of central government health policy.
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