Healthcare: epidemic control and strengthen grassroot services
Feb. 23 (VNA) -- The health sector plans to actively prevent and control epidemics and strengthen grassroots medical services, particularly in remote and mountainous areas, this year.
The plans are just two of ten major tasks set by the sector for 2001 at a two-day conference ending in Ho Chi Minh City today, Feb. 23.
The other tasks focus on building three specialist medical centres in Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City and central Viet Nam; improving the quality of medical treatment, re-organizing the grassroots medical network; effectively implementing national medical programmes; deploying synchronous health care for the poor; minority people and those who live in remote and isolated areas; raising the quality of home-made medicines; expanding care for medical-insurance card holders in communes, and accelerating the implementation of medical projects.
Viet Nam was officially recognized as having eliminated polio by the World Health Organization while almost 52 percent of all Viet Nam's communes have physicians and 70 percent of villages, medical workers. The country saw no outbreaks of epidemic diseases last year although it was subject to consecutive floods.
The phamarceutical industry registered a growth rate of 18 percent last year, meeting 30 percent of domestic demand. It has produced nine of ten vaccines for national immunization programmes and begun to export medicines. More advanced techniques have been introduced and more hospitals have been upgraded.
In recognition of the sector's great contributions to the people's health, the Government has presented excellent emulation banners to 14 outstanding medical establishments for Vietnamese Physicians' Day (Feb. 27).--VNA
