Vietnam has called on the international community to provide more technical and financial assistance for its medical sector in a bid to better healthcare services for local residents, a health official said.
Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu made the call at the Health Partnership Group Meeting in Hanoi on March 24, with the participation of many foreign and domestic experts.
“Vietnam's health sector is facing many challenges, such great difference in the quality of medical treatment between regions, lack of medical workers and high drug prices,” Trieu highlighted.
Deficient manpower and financial resources are obstacles that need to be dealt with to gain an effective healthcare service in the coming years, he attributed, hoping that foreign friends will help it realize the plan for health sector development between 2011 and 2015. The five-year plan will focus on priority areas, including the consolidation of the healthcare network; preventive medicine and enhanced national targeted programs; improvements in medical checkups and treatment; population and family planning as well as reproductive health activities. At the event, HPG Meeting co-chairman and Country Director of UNAIDS in Vietnam Eamonn Murphy asked the health sector and partners to focus efforts at a technical level, such as planning and budgeting, health insurance and human resources to reduce infection and death rates of maternal and child, HIV or tuberculosis (TB) in the next years. Vietnam has achieved Millennium Development Goals on cutting infant fatality rate, the under 5 years mortality rate (16/1,000 and 25/1,000 respectively), and reduced the maternal mortality rate (68/100,000 live births). (Vietnam News Mar 25 p3, vietnamplus.vn Mar 24)
