The German development cooperation agency GIZ will continue helping Vietnam improve its hospital management with the use of advanced technologies, GIZ Programme Director Anna Frisch said.

The GIZ official attended a forum on the application of advanced technologies in hospital management, co-organised by the Ministry of Health and the GIZ, in the central city of Da Nang on November 6.

GIZ has assisted the first phase of the German-funded project on providing technical assistance to strengthen the provincial healthcare system in the provinces of Yen Bai, Thai Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Phu Yen.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen asked the provinces to accelerate the use of modern IT solutions to better their hospital management and healthcare services.

She lauded the coordination between the Vietnamese and German sides in implementing the project, adding that it will be expanded to other localities, especially in rural and ethnic minority-inhabited areas, in its second phase.

At the forum, participants pointed out that the application of advanced technologies in hospital management in Vietnam is falling behind many countries in the world. Some hospitals have just used technologies in managing office works, personnel, medicine and the admission of patients, not the whole treatment process.

They said Vietnam needs to perfect the legal framework for wider IT application in hospitals, multiply the advanced hospital management model, build a integrated medical information centre, and enhance cooperation with other countries in the field.-VNA