Nearly 400 foreign and local paediatricians gathered in Hanoi on March 27 for the first national conference on paediatric emergencies and intensive care.    
      
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen said that most general hospitals at district level lack paediatric emergency wards as well as transportation facilities for children in emergency cases.   
      
The health sector will prioritise personnel training in paediatric emergency services, as well as transfer technology and equipment for paediatric care at provincial hospitals.    
      
According to an initial survey on the nation’s paediatric emergency system conducted by the National Paediatrics Hospital in 2008, 93 percent of provincial general hospitals have paediatric departments, and nearly 80 percent have children’s examination wards but just 69 percent have children’s emergency wards, and nearly 60 percent have intensive care facilities geared to children. As a result, they were unable to effectively treat serious diseases in children, such as bird flu or acute pneumonia or conduct major surgery and medical techniques.   
      
Many grassroots hospitals still lack essential medical facilities such as central compressed air systems and breathers./.