Dear comrades in the Central working delegation,
Dear leaders of the Ministry of Health,
Dear doctors, professors, doctors, staff in the health sector and comrades delegates attending the meeting.
70 years ago, on February 27, 2015, President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the health sector with extremely profound advice. The school instructed medical staff to grasp the saying "Healthy salaries must be from the model" and requested the Government to "Build a healthcare system suitable to the needs of our people", "must be based on the principles of science, ethnicity and the masses"... From there, February 27 became Vietnam Doctors' Day. Uncle Ho's teachings have become a guideline for action for leaders, for generations of doctors and have been a consistent motto of the entire health sector for the past seven decades.
After 70 years of construction, labor, dedication and growth, the Vietnamese health sector has made great strides in both quantity and quality, meeting the increasing demand for health care and medical examination and treatment for the people. Vietnam is highly appreciated by the international community for its implementation of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals in the health sector, with many indicators of the health system and public health superior to many countries with the same level of development. Our country's health system has been constantly consolidated and expanded from the central to local levels; from urban areas to mountainous areas, islands, disadvantaged areas, remote areas. The professional qualifications, research capacity, and practical capabilities of the medical team are increasingly improved along with increasingly modern and advanced medical machinery, equipment, and medicines. Our current medical capacity not only meets the needs of people's health care but also contributes significantly to the development of world medicine. The Vietnamese health sector is increasingly affirming its role in joining hands to solve global health challenges.
The great contributions of the health sector to the cause of people's health care and national development have been recognized by the Party and the State with noble awards. Thousands of doctors have been honored with the titles of Hero of Labor, Hero of the People's Armed Forces, Emulation Fighter National, People's Doctor, People's Teacher, Excellent Doctor, Excellent Teacher... Along with those noble titles, the most important thing is the people's trust and gratitude for the team of doctors, who have not been afraid of difficulties and hardships, and have devoted themselves to the cause of community health care. It is not by chance that society uses the word "Teacher" or "Mother" for those who contribute to the medical industry.
Dear comrades,
Looking back at the history of Vietnamese medicine, we can affirm that traditional medicine is associated with the process of building and defending the country. Since the Hung Kings, the Vietnamese have used herbs, acupuncture and folk remedies to treat diseases. During the Ly - Tran Dynasty, Thai Hoc Hospital was established to treat diseases and conduct medical research. The famous physician Tue Tinh (14th century) was the one who laid the foundation for traditional medicine with the philosophy of "An American medicine treating men", Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac (18th century) was famous for "Linh Nam ban thu" and "Yong Toan Tam". In modern times, we have the Pasteur Saigon Institute (1891), Pasteur Nha Trang Institute (1895), Cho Ray Hospital (1900), Protective Merchant House - Viet Duc Hospital (1904), Bach Mai Hospital (1911)...
The modern Vietnamese healthcare sector was formed and developed strongly during the country's difficult years. When the resistance war against French colonialism and later the resistance war against the US entered a fierce period, the team of doctors became soldiers on the front line to treat war invalids, sick soldiers and war victims. In the face of widespread shortages, doctors, nurses, and nurses have established field hospitals right in the deep forest, in the grottos, under the basement and in the most severe places. Many examples of wartime doctors have become symbols of Vietnamese courage, indomitable spirit and intelligence. Doctor Dang Van Ngu, who died on the way to the battlefield, researched malaria control for the soldiers. Professor, Dr. Ton That Tung with his famous liver surgery method has saved thousands of war invalids. Martyr, Doctor Dang Thuy Tram has become the symbol and pride of a generation of gun-carrying people in the unforgettable historical period of the nation. The images of doctors and nurses carrying war invalids through bullets, surgery in the face of a lack of medical equipment, or military medics accepting to sacrifice to protect patients have been deeply engraved in the minds of many generations.
Despite the fierce war situation, many medical facilities and hospitals have become targets of destruction, the health sector has maintained the work of taking care of people's health, preventing epidemics and ensuring the health of soldiers, contributing significantly to the victory of the resistance war for independence.
After the country was completely unified in 1975, the Vietnamese health sector entered a new phase with great challenges. However, with the determination of the Party, the State and the continuous efforts of the health sector, Vietnam has gradually built a comprehensive health system, taking the people as the center, ensuring the right to health care for all people.
Entering the Innovation phase, the health sector has also made important changes to improve service quality and ensure fairness in health care. One of the biggest reforms is the introduction of the health insurance system in 1992, marking an important step forward in reducing the burden of medical examination and treatment costs for people. From a voluntary health insurance model, up to now, the rate of health insurance participants has reached over 94% of the population, contributing to ensuring that all people have access to health services at reasonable costs.
In addition, the policy of socializing healthcare is also promoted, allowing private hospitals to develop in parallel with the public hospital system, creating a healthy competitive environment, improving the quality of medical examination and treatment services. Private hospitals and international hospitals are appearing more and more, contributing to reducing the burden on public health facilities, especially in large cities.
In recent decades, the Vietnamese health sector has made breakthroughs in improving treatment quality, applying high technology and developing modern medicine. Central-level hospitals such as Viet Duc Hospital, Bach Mai, Cho Ray, Hue Central Hospital, Hospital 108 ... have mastered many advanced medical techniques. Our doctors have successfully performed complex organ transplants such as kidney transplant, liver transplant, heart transplant, lung transplant... helping to save the lives of many patients with serious illnesses. Robotic surgery is deployed in the fields of surgery, urology, neurology, oncology, helping to improve the accuracy of treatment. Stem cell technology is effectively applied to treat many diseases of blood, spinal cord injury, cirrhosis, and cancer.
The health sector has also achieved many important achievements in improving life expectancy and improving the quality of life for people. The average life expectancy of Vietnamese people has been constantly improving, increasing from about 38 years old in 1945, to 60 years old (in the period of 1975-1980) and to the current average of 74.5 years old.
Along with the development of the health system, the work of training and improving the quality of medical human resources has been focused on, helping Vietnam have a team of doctors and medical experts of international standards. Leading medical universities such as Hanoi Medical University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy... constantly innovate training programs, enhance clinical practice, and access advanced medical advances. Vietnamese doctors today have the same professional qualifications as the world, and can perform advanced medical techniques that are not inferior to developed countries. Many Vietnamese doctors have published valuable research works that have been highly appreciated by the world medical community.
However, in addition to the achieved results, the Vietnamese health sector is also facing many major challenges, requiring strong innovation to ensure the goal of providing health care for all people in the new situation. These challenges do not come from internal factors of the industry but also from economic, social and technological factors.
On the occasion of our 70th anniversary of the implementation of Uncle Ho's teachings, we reported to Uncle Ho the results of implementing this teaching. However, we are still concerned about what we cannot do, especially with Uncle Ho's wish to "build a healthcare suitable to the needs of our people" and "must be based on the principles of science, nation and the masses".
One of the biggest challenges of the health sector is to carry out the task of caring for people's health and community health, creating a good quality human resource for society, creating a healthy and happy life for all people. Everyone is given health care to achieve the desire to prolong their life and have a healthy life, a clean society, no epidemics, no dangers. This is the goal of the Party, of the regime, and also the desire of the people. Strive for the average life expectancy of people of 80 years, 90 years and 100 years old.
The health sector is not only about medical examination and treatment but also disease prevention. The health sector has preventive medicine work but has not met expectations. Through the prevention of the COVID-19 epidemic and some other recent epidemics, the health sector has revealed the weak limitations of epidemic prevention work, especially in preventive medicine. It is necessary to focus on evaluation to draw lessons in direction and professional work. Along with that, the prevention of common diseases (cancer, cardiovascular disease, endocrine disease, liver disease, lung disease, etc.) is also facing many difficulties that need to be overcome soon.
In addition, the protection of the living environment, regular health training, health care for disadvantaged people (the elderly, children, women, the disabled, the poor, orphans, homeless people, etc.) have not been carefully considered. Food control, food hygiene, nutrition to prevent risks...
Regular health check-ups for the people have not been seriously considered. The disease must be treated before becoming chronic.
The work of propagating disease prevention among the people, educating community health for people to prevent diseases themselves, improving the ability to strengthen their resistance is still limited.
Monday: The issue of ethics in the industry is a requirement that needs to be addressed. Comrades are proud to have the tradition of medical examination and treatment of the nation, the famous doctors practicing ethics and medicine are national in nature, especially we have the advice of Uncle Ho "Doctor is like a model". However, there are still doctors and people in the medical industry who are dishonest in their profession, even have poor professional ethics, lack responsibility towards patients, discriminate in medical examination and treatment, lack responsibility, are indifferent to the pain of patients, benefits, and put material benefits above the responsibility of doctors. There are also doctors who do not have real qualifications, run for achievements, steal topics and research works from colleagues, only worry about personal interests... and the most dangerous thing is to forget to follow Uncle Ho's teachings to medical staff.
Tuesday: Our grassroots health system also has many limitations and shortcomings. Investment in grassroots health care has not met actual needs; many commune health stations and district health centers have not been fully equipped with modern facilities and equipment; the shortage of drugs and medical supplies still occurs, especially in rural and mountainous areas. The grassroots health sector is currently always lacking doctors and human resources. Some disadvantaged areas still face obstacles in implementing expanded immunization due to complex terrain and limited medical staff. The weak grassroots health system has caused overload in public and upper-level hospitals. greatly affects the quality of medical examination and treatment.
Wednesday: Regarding resources, although we have a developed medical training system, the health sector still faces a shortage of human resources and specialized specialties, especially in remote areas. The income of medical staff, especially in public hospitals, is still low compared to the workload and risk level. This has caused many good doctors and nurses to move to the private sector or work abroad. Localities in remote areas, islands and islands have difficulty attracting and retaining medical staff. Professional capacity has a large difference between levels. decades ago, we clearly identified: Medical practice is a special profession, which needs to be selected, trained, used and given special treatment. However, looking back, we have only had special selection and training, but have not had special use and treatment".
Thursday: Recently, many public hospitals have encountered difficulties in bidding for the procurement of drugs, equipment and medical supplies. The main reason for the lack of inadequacies in the bidding mechanism is that some essential drugs cannot be bid due to low prices or suppliers not participating. The shortage of drugs, especially rare drugs and new drugs, makes patients not benefit or have to wait or find to buy them at higher prices, by "hand-carried" or personal ordering. In some hospitals, degraded facilities are not invested in in timely manner, seriously affecting the working environment of doctors and nurses and the conditions for medical examination and treatment for patients. Many advanced and modern medical equipment do not appear in public hospitals because they are controlled by bidding regulations or some other administrative regulations.
The application of technology and digitalization of healthcare is also slow. Although the world health sector is rapidly shifting to smart health care and digitizing medical records, in Vietnam, digital transformation in healthcare still faces many barriers. Electronic medical records and remote healthcare have not been widely deployed, many hospitals still use manual documents. We also lack a technological infrastructure to synchronize health data nationwide; There is no strong incentive policy for medical technology startups, and the application of technological achievements in medical examination and treatment is still limited.
Among the above challenges, there are problems that have existed for a long time, we have proposed solutions in the Party's directive documents; the National Assembly and the Government have also taken specific implementation steps. However, the level of effectiveness is still limited, some solutions need time to be promoted. Meanwhile, new problems and new challenges continue to appear. To address the challenges for the health sector today and in the coming years, in addition to continuing to effectively implement the Party's resolutions on the health sector, I would like to emphasize the following twelve contents:
First, it is necessary to innovate the thinking about the health sector. Health is not only about examining and treating patients, but more importantly, it is about taking care of people's health to limit diseases; it is necessary to focus on researching disease prevention measures, improving health, prolonging life; enhancing the capacity for reproductive health, pediatrics and geriatrics; enhancing community health; increasing the number of people coming to medical facilities for annual or semi-annual health check-ups.
Focus on removing difficulties, barriers, and bottlenecks for the health sector to rise up, so that we can have "a healthcare suitable for the needs of our people" as desired by Uncle Ho 70 years ago.
Second, improve medical ethics among medical staff. In addition to implementing Uncle Ho's teachings to medical staff well, each doctor, doctor, and employee in the health sector, in addition to doing well in their profession, needs to raise awareness of respecting and protecting the patient's life and health; treat patients fairly, without any discrimination in the " indifference" of the patient; respect the rights and dignity of the patient; be honest and objective in practicing work; always study to improve knowledge and professional qualifications; demonstrate responsibility to the community and society, to truly be a "Mother" in the eyes of patients and their families.
Third, strengthen and improve the quality of the grassroots health system, reduce the burden on upper-level hospitals and develop a satellite hospital system. Upgrading equipment and infrastructure for district health centers and commune health stations; ensuring that grassroots health facilities have enough qualified doctors and medical staff, especially in remote areas; constantly improving the quality of medical services to attract local people to seek medical examination and treatment instead of focusing on upper-level hospitals. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the effectiveness of vaccination and preventive medicine programs, expand the coverage of the expanded immunization program, and ensure that all children are fully vaccinated. In addition to the task of examining and treating diseases for people, it is necessary to improve disease prevention measures and initial health care measures to limit diseases.
It is necessary to increase training and transfer techniques from central hospitals to provincial and district hospitals; invest in developing specialized medical centers in localities to reduce pressure on large hospitals. At the same time, increase the application of technology in medical examination and treatment, helping patients in remote areas access specialized doctors without having to travel far; build an online health consultation system to support initial diagnosis. At the same time, it is necessary to expand forms of public-private cooperation and expand space for the private sector to participate in investing in the construction of medical facilities, hospitals, nursing centers, etc., to encourage the development of hospitals and medical services outside the state sector.
Fourth, improve treatment policies and train high-quality medical human resources. The Ministry of Health needs to soon have specific proposals to improve salaries and allowances for doctors and nurses, especially in disadvantaged areas; financial support for medical students committed to working in grassroots health after graduation. At the same time, it is necessary to focus on promoting scientific research and international cooperation; cooperating with international health organizations to train doctors, receive advanced technology transfer; creating conditions for doctors to participate in scientific conferences, exchange experiences with foreign experts to continuously improve their qualifications and experience.
Fifth, reform health finance and ensure the sustainability of the health insurance fund. It is necessary to improve health insurance policies to support disadvantaged people, ensure that disadvantaged groups such as the poor, people with disabilities, and children have comprehensive health insurance coverage; at the same time, improve the list of health insurance payments to reduce the financial burden on patients with serious illnesses.
Sixth, perfecting health laws. Develop an overall strategy for human health care and community health (completening disease prevention laws, medical examination and treatment laws, infectious disease prevention laws, drug laws, traditional medicine laws, population laws, food safety laws, sports laws, etc.). The health sector needs to soon complete regulations on health service management and health care; disease prevention and community health; management of drugs, biological products and medical equipment; Health insurance and social security; rights and obligations of patients and medical staff...
Seventh, it is necessary to promptly overcome shortcomings in bidding for the procurement of drugs and medical equipment. This is not only a problem for the health sector but also for the political system. We need to ask why there is no such situation in private hospitals? This is also an institutional "bottleneck" that we need to overcome soon, not to affect the operation of the health sector, the quality of health care for the people. If we continue this situation, we are at fault with the people. The general policy is that wherever there is a problem, it must be resolved immediately; if the law needs to be amended, it must be amended; if a special mechanism is really needed, there must be a special mechanism to ensure that drugs and supplies are provided with enough, good quality, and at reasonable prices.
Eighth, develop traditional medicine combined with modern medicine. Traditional medicine plays an important role in health care, especially in the treatment of chronic diseases and rehabilitation. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the role of traditional medicine in the health system; combine traditional medicine with modern medicine in diagnosis and treatment; promote research on folk remedies, enhance the scientific nature of traditional medicine; invest in research centers for east medicine, develop effective treatment methods using herbs; support the training of traditional medicine doctors, expand the model of combining east-west medicine. In addition, we are a country with strengths, can be said to be the world leader and very close to Vietnamese traditional medicine as Central Medicine, as Northern medicine, but cooperation between the two sides is still limited.
Fourth, increase the application of digital technology in disease management and treatment. It is necessary to promote digital transformation in health management; deploy electronic medical records, synchronize health data between hospitals and medical facilities. It is necessary to increase the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data in disease diagnosis, treatment and disease trend analysis, while investing in developing software to support doctors in making treatment decisions, increasing accuracy in disease diagnosis. It is necessary to increase the application of AI in smart diagnosis; organ transplantation; develop stem cell technology; Genotherapy techniques; Robot surgery; 3D printing technology to personalize medical equipment for personalized medicine...
Ten is, improve community health work, propagate disease prevention among the people, develop a physical exercise movement. It is necessary to encourage people to improve their physical fitness, practice sports; improve the quality of physical education in schools; build community sports infrastructure, encourage people to participate in physical activities. It is necessary to improve propaganda work, encourage periodic health check-ups, early detection of diseases; encourage a healthy lifestyle, prevent diseases. Each citizen also needs to be responsible for raising awareness of health protection, proactively exercising, and practicing a healthy lifestyle.
Once again, international cooperation in disease prevention and control: in the current "flat world", international cooperation to enhance capacity for disease control and response, in disease treatment is an important part of the global health strategy. In which, focusing on sharing information on epidemic data (epidemic situation, origin, developments, response measures, coordination of monitoring, early warning...); cooperation in scientific research and development of the health industry; financial and technical support, cooperation in the production and distribution of drugs and vaccines; building common policies and legal frameworks, enhancing regional and international emergency response capacity, focusing on cooperation with countries in the region, medical powers...
twelfth is, the work of cleaning the living environment, healthy spirit, not being pessimistic, negative, not using stimulants, causing addiction... In addition to striving for every family, residential area, and community to be "Bright - Green - Clean - Beautiful", the health sector needs to have programs to contribute to other functional units to educate the community on maintaining hygiene in the place of residence and workplace; waste treatment, ensuring water and air sources are not polluted; food hygiene and hygienic eating; controlling disease-causing insects and animals; improving personal and community hygiene conditions...
Dear comrades and delegates,
Protecting, caring for and improving people's health is not only the task of the health sector but also the responsibility of each citizen, the entire political system and the whole society. To achieve the goal of building a modern, fair and effective healthcare system, there needs to be active participation of Party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front, organizations, and sectors, in which the health sector plays a core role. It is necessary to mobilize all resources, from perfecting policies, improving the grassroots health system, attracting and treating medical human resources, to applying digital technology and promoting preventive medicine.
With the determination of the entire Party and people, along with the continuous efforts of the health sector, we believe that the Vietnamese health sector will continue to develop strongly, contributing to improving the quality of life of the people and bringing the country into an era of prosperity and development. Our country has sustainable development, our people are healthy, happy, prolong their life and live well thanks to the work of taking care of people's health and the close attention of the health sector. Human health is the most precious thing; health will be everything, health is the most desirable thing. All the first things I wish each other are good health... and the health sector is honored to be assigned the responsibility of being the main force in the task of taking care of people's health. Once again, I would like to send my best wishes to all professors, doctors, nurses, and medical staff across the country. Wishing you to always be healthy and steadfast, continue to promote the spirit of "Salary as a model", and contribute more to the cause of protecting and caring for people's health.
Sincerely thank you!
