Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi is focusing on medical human resources training and administrative reform to improve the quality of public health services in the 2014-2015 period and onward. The capital city aims to reach the rate of 12.5 doctors per 10,000 people and two pharmacists per 10,000 people in 2015. The figures will be raised to 13.5 and 2.5 respectively in 2020. The capital’s health sector will enable more patients to access modern health check-ups and treatment, while developing infrastructure and increasing the number of sick-beds at hospitals. It will also simplify administrative formalities via the implementation and expansion of the one-stop-shop mechanism and the application of information technology as well as reducing time and cost for medical treatment. Over the past five years, Hanoi have invested VND567 billion ($26.6 million) in health care programs, with a focus on maternal and child health and communicable and non-communicable diseases. Additionally, more than 51,000 middle-aged women in the city were screened for cancer as part of a three-year project on cervical and breast cancer, which was led by the Hanoi Committee for the Advancement of Women and ended in 2014. The city also distributed free medicine worth VND500 million ($24,000) and equipped the Hanoi Oncology Hospital with machinery worth more than VND1.5 billion ($72,000). (Vietnam News Jan 7)
