Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the health sector to continue modernising and perfecting the healthcare system, especially grassroots-level services and preventive medicine.

Addressing a conference of the Health Ministry in Hanoi on Feb. 23 on the occasion of Vietnam Physicians’ Day (Feb. 27), PM Dung asked the sector to revamp operations and financial mechanisms in public health units.

He called on the ministry and relevant ministries and branches to promptly submit a project on reducing hospital overload, with priority given to central general hospitals and specialised hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City .

Attention should be paid to expanding training models to ensure human resources in future, Dung said.

The year 2011 is the third consecutive year the health sector has fulfilled missions assigned by the National Assembly regarding sick beds and the number of under-five malnourished children, as well as the birth rate and treated solid waste.

The sector also recorded significant achievements in improving health care network quality at grassroots level, with 80 percent of communes meeting national health regulations, 72 percent of communal health clinics having doctors and 86 percent of villages having health workers.

The sector has invested in upgrading equipment for health check-ups and treatment, and successfully conducted organ transplants and surgery that required high technology.

Such achievements are planned to be upheld in 2012, the meeting was told.

This year, the sector will offer health insurance cards to 65 percent of the population./.