Minister outlines measures to improve primary health care services

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien announced a set of measures to enhance the quality of health care services at commune-level medical stations during an event on July 16.
Minister outlines measures to improve primary health care services ảnh 1Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
HCM City(VNA) – Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien announced a set of measures toenhance the quality of health care services at commune-level medical stationsduring an event on July 16.

These includeimproving the capacity of medical workers; finding new operation methods;investing in human resources and facilities; applying information technology;designing special financial regimes; and enhancing communication work, said Tienat the opening of a training course on chronic disease care at commune-levelmedical stations held in Ho Chi Minh City.

In the future,services for the treatment, control, and prevention of non-communicable chronicdiseases – like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular, and respiratorydiseases – will be predominantly delivered by medical stations at ward andcommune levels.

A large network ofward- and commune-level medical stations have been set up across the countrybut the health sector has yet to make the most of them, she said, adding thatit is a waste of resources as upper-level hospitals are becoming moreovercrowded.

“This is the time wehave to develop primary care services to make drastic changes to the healthsector,” the minister stated.

Tien moved on tosuggest that ward- and commune-level medical clinics need to pay more attentionto developing traditional medicine in order to make it one of their specialadvantages. She expected that such primary care providers will win public trustwith an increasing number of people visiting them over the next 10 years.

Also speaking at theevent, Director of the HCM City Department of Health Nguyen Tan Binh said thecity is striving to have at least two doctors in each medical station, with largerones having up to four or five doctors.

The city is also thefirst in the country to establish satellite practices for district-levelhospitals at a number of the city’s ward and communal medical stations, aimingto ease the overcrowding at higher-level health facilities and get people moreconfident in the primary care system, he added.

According to theMinistry of Health, Vietnam is aiming at having over 90 percent of thepopulation’s health monitored, with 95 percent of the ward- and commune-levelmedical stations capable of providing preventative and treatment services for aselection of non-communicable diseases by 2025.

To this end, theministry has opened a number of training courses on improving the quality offamily medicine-based care services for chronic diseases at ward- andcommune-level medical clinics across the country. Hanoi and HCM City are thefirst two launching this course.

The course opened inHanoi on July 9 while others will take place in provinces, such as Ninh Binh,Thanh Hoa, and Ca Mau.-VNA

VNA

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