Central Highlands focus on grassroots health service development
Ha Noi, May 14 (VNA) -- The health sector in the Central Highlands has considered as its first target the development of grassroots medical network to eradicate communes blank of health care services.
In recent years, central highlands Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces have focused on improving community-based medical services to ensure primary health care for ethnic and poor people, timely detect and prevent epidemics, and encourage people to take measures of hygiene and family planning.
Gia Lai province built infirmaries in all communes, developed the contingent of medical workers at 1,462 out of 1,716 hamlets during the past five years. Besides, the health sector regularly sent groups of doctors on working trips into remote and isolated hamlets. Usually, these teams provide free treatment and medicines to the locals.
The province strives to have doctors in 40 percent of its communes and midwives in all communes and medical workers in all hamlets by 2005. The province will put into use a polyclinics with 500 in-patient beds and six operational rooms by the end of this year.
The health care sector in Kon Tum province has developed from only 50 doctors and almost all remote and isolated communes being blank of health services in 1991. Almost its communes now have their own infirmaries with an average of four nurses for one infirmary. Three-fourths of communes have doctors' assistants, and all have midwives. All of 768 hamlets have medical workers.
Kon Tum province plans to provide training for all medical workers at hamlet level by 2006. By the time, each commune will have on average five medical workers with 40 key communes having doctors.--VNA
