The government of Vietnam plans to train family doctors from 2011, the Vietnam News Agency said Friday, citing Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien at a health conference in Hanoi. The seminar on building training program on family doctors was held by Vietnam’s Health Ministry and the Hanoi Medical University on Jan. 21. The ministry has firstly assigned the Hanoi Medical University and the Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University to make the detailed plan. The local health authorities will ask the Management Department of Medical Check-up and Treatment to instruct the development of the family doctor model at central-level hospitals, added Tien. The plan will contribute to reduce the overload of central-level hospitals and improve healthcare service quality for people. The health sector lacked nearly 2,000 doctors per year and the country had only six doctors per 10,000 people in 2008.
