Gov't approves plan to implement grassroots healthcare network planning

Under the plan, the Government will give priority to allocating public investment capital for development of grassroots healthcare network in areas with difficult economic conditions, remote areas, border areas, and island areas.

Public investment capital will also be steered to such fields like preventive medicine, prevention and control of tuberculosis, leprosy, mental diseases.

The Government will adopt mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses and research facilities to invest in specialized laboratories for drug research and development.

The Government also encourages private investments in developing high-tech services to meet the population's diverse health needs, including high-income individuals and foreign nationals.

The plan underlines the importance of improving the quality of training at medical education schools to ensure edequate supply of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses.

It also looks to promote innovation in healthcare sector through big data and artificial intelligence, with a focus on cutting-edge technologies in areas like biotechnology, pharmacology, and biomedical electronics.

Upgrading six leading hospitals to int'l national standards

The Government targets to prioritize investment capital to upgrade six hospitals to international levels, including Bach Mai Hospital, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, Hue Central Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital, 108 Central Military Hospital, and 175 Military Medical Hospital.

It will gives priority to building a central-level hospital in the Central Highlands region, a National Centers for Human Organ Transplantation Coordination in Ha Noi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. 

In preventive and public health, investments will focus on establishing a central disease control center and three regional centers for disease control.

Regarding population and reproductive health area, the Government plans build two new prenatal and newborn diagnostic centers in Thai Nguyen and Dak Lak, while upgrading six existing centers in Ha Noi, Nghe An, Thua Thien Hue, Ho Chi Minh City, and Can Tho.

The grassroots healthcare network planning targets that by 2025, Viet Nam will have 33 hospital beds, 15 doctors, 3.4 pharmacists and 25 nurses per 10,000 people.

By 2030, the above figures will be respectively increased to 35, 19, 4, 33 per 10,000 people. The private sector will account for 15 percent of the total hospital beds./.