WHO opens Global Health Office in Vietnam

Hanoi (VNA) - With the establishment of the Global Health Office (GHO), Vietnam's health sector looks to systematise its activities in global health care field.

Representatives from the Ministry of Health and WHO Representative Office in Vietnam cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Vietnam Global Health Office. (Photo: VietnamPlus)

On December 16, the GHO in Hanoi was officially inaugurated and put into operation in Vietnam by the Vietnamese Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

It was part of efforts to enhance Vietnam’s important role in regional and global health care.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Truong Son said Vietnam has long acquired support from countries and international partners. With the establishment of the GHO, Vietnam's health sector aims to systematise its activities in global health care field and play a more active role in promoting the development of global public health care.

WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai spoke highly of the GHO establishment in Vietnam, considering it an outstanding achievement of Vietnam to deliver on commitments to contributing to public health care in the region and the world, especially amid the current globalisation.

He said he has witnessed Vietnam’s important role in global development and security in recent years, including public health care. As a member of the WHO Executive Board for the 2016-2019 period, Vietnam plays a significant role in decision and policy making by the World Health Assembly.

According to him, Vietnam has made great strides and will certainly grow further in the future.

Addressing the event, WHO Chief Representative in Vietnam Kidong Park said Vietnam has transformed its role and position in the global health care field over the past years, with its health care system that partly relied on external support becoming an independent one. Vietnam has shared its experience with countries in health care financial self-sufficiency, health care insurance coverage, and road map to health care coverage for all citizens.

He expressed wish that Vietnam could serve as an instructor for other countries when they face similar difficulties, in which the GHO will play a central role.

The GHO will coordinate health-related issues in the region and the world, and at government units, including in and outside the Health Ministry, as well as offer consultations to policymaking and global health care issues.

Additionally, the GHO will enhance the capacity of government officials to improve their representative function in the region and the world, step up studies to lay foundation for decisions related to global health care.

The WHO is helping GHO build an action plan for the first two years and set a broader vision.

On the same day, the Health Ministry launched a Technical Working Group on Primary Health Care, in order to strengthen the capacity to coordinate and manage resources as well as provide and implement health services.

Vietnam currently has more than 1,300 hospitals and medical facilities with 250,000 beds that serve 150 million visits of outpatients and 15 million inpatients yearly, according to the health ministry. 

According to a report delivered by Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Social Security Pham Luong Son, 99.5 percent of medical facilities nationwide have been linked to the health insurance medical information assessment system since its launch, except for 65 commune-level health stations in remote areas without electricity access.

The health insurance medical information assessment system received some 68.9 million dossiers requesting insurance payments worth 35 trillion VND (1.55 billion USD) in the last six months of 2016, and another 3 million requesting insurance payments of 2 trillion VND (88.6 million USD) in the first month of 2017, the report said./.