Rural public healthcare development
Ha Noi, Jan. 25 (VNA)-- Viet Nam plans to invest some USD 98.7 million to boost the development of its rural public healthcare system by 2006. The investment will be focused on building 212 medical clinics; 13 preventive medical centres, 13 hospitals and 99 general clinics in 13 provinces, as well as medical-worker training.
The Asian Development Bank has pledged USD 68.3 million in soft loans and the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has granted USD 1 million for the programme.
Concerted efforts will be made to provide medical services for people in mountain and remote areas with a high population of minority people; expand the commune-based medical system so as to raise the rate of nurse-assisted deliveries as well as the numbers benefiting from medicines, medical instruments and clean water.
The Health Ministry has submitted to the Government a plan seeking a two-times higher per-capita allocation from the State budget for mountain and isolated areas and where only 22 percent of the communes have physicians.
The cities, provinces and communes fully staffed with physicians last year were in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and southern Can Tho province.
The rate in other lowland provinces varied from 40 percent to 70 percent but the Government-sponsored programme to send medical workers to rural areas helped promote the transfer of medical knowledge to local workers.
Viet Nam was recognised last year as having eliminated polio and national disease prevention and immunization programmes have heavily reduced the death rate.
More than 90 percent of infants have received shots against six major infectious diseases while malnutrition among children under five fell to 34 percent in 2000 from 44 percent in 1995.
But services provided by district and commune medical clinics are still poor because they lack of facilities and instruments.
There are only two physicians per every 10,000 people in northern mountain and Mekong delta provinces, where the number of nurses, midwives and pharmaceutical workers is fewer than other regions and the State budget allocation is about VND 18,000 (USD 1.4) per person a year - VND 6,000 lower than the national average.--VNA
