A Health Ministry-administered 85-million USD project has helped more than 81
percent of people living just above the poverty line in the Mekong delta afford
social health insurance premiums.
The figure was reported at a conference
reviewing a project to assist healthcare services in the Mekong delta over the
past four years. The conference was co-organised by the Health Ministry and the
World Bank in Can Tho city on March 11.
Thanks to the project’s premium
subsidies, 100 percent of people who were vulnerable to poverty in nine of 13
cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta have paid for social health insurance
that helped them address the burden of health care costs, according to the
project director, Le Thi Thanh.
The nine localities include Ca Mau, Bac
Lieu, An Giang, Can Tho, Kien Giang, Long An, Soc Trang, Tien Giang and Tra
Vinh.
In addition, as many as 16,900 patients struck by economic
difficulties in the region have received medical treatment subsidies from the
project, which has also assisted in the further training of 1,300 doctors and
health workers in the area.
The project has also equipped provincial
general hospitals and preventive healthcare clinics with modern medical
equipment and machinery to enhance their treatment capacity.
The World
Bank commented that the project has greatly assisted the Mekong delta provinces
in enforcing health care policies, particularly social health insurance schemes,
for the poor and low-income earners.
This year, the project targets
helping more than 50 percent of low-income earners in the remaining four
provinces of Hau Giang, Ben Tre, Vinh Long and Dong Thap to be able to afford
social health insurance premiums.
It will invest in upgrading 11 general
hospitals in the region to enable them to deploy a computerised epidemic
monitoring system to improve localities’ ability to control outbreaks of
disease.
In addition to this, the project will set aside a funding to
help localities subsidise hospital fees for low-income earners and modernise
their medical schools, colleges and hospitals to meet the needs of local people
for medical checks-up and treatment./.