Developing the health sector towards fairness and modernity

Double happiness. Photo: Ho Hai Dang

Many difficulties and challenges

With the attention of the Party and State, the Ministry of Health, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee and other departments and branches for health work, in 2018, the whole sector basically completed the targets on protecting, caring for and improving people's health, contributing significantly to the successful implementation of the socio-economic development targets of the province.

In addition to the achievements, the health care career of the Nghe An province's health sector still has difficulties such as: Some infectious diseases such as dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease, although the incidence has decreased over the years, are still high. The rate of detection, treatment and management of non-communicable diseases in the community is still low. Primary health care still has many difficulties, especially in mountainous, remote and isolated areas.

Disease prevention propaganda for people in remote areas. Photo: Tu Thanh

In addition, the quality of medical examination and treatment and the development of new techniques in some medical examination and treatment facilities are still limited; the transfer of techniques from upper levels to lower levels has not been implemented much, especially in some district and mountainous hospitals. The problem of hospital overload, especially in provincial hospitals, has not been completely resolved.

Along with that, the people's demand for both quantity and quality of services is increasing rapidly, causing medical costs to increase rapidly. Although the budget has increased, the increase is still low, so it has not met the requirements. Investment resources for health care, although being paid attention by the Party, the State, and the province, have not yet met expectations, especially for preventive medicine and primary health care. Although efforts have been made to encourage and attract investment in developing socialization in public health facilities, due to many objective and subjective reasons, the results have not been as expected.

The Health Department's working group inspected dengue fever prevention work in Dien Ngoc commune, Dien Chau district. Photo: Tu Thanh

The situation of staff in the health sector is not guaranteed in terms of quantity, structure of qualifications between levels, lack of highly qualified doctors and specialists, making it difficult to develop techniques and establish departments and rooms of the hospital according to regulations... The infrastructure of some health units is still in a state of deterioration, poor hygiene conditions in hospital rooms, lack of modern equipment for technical development but has not been invested in upgrading.

In addition, many documents between the two sectors of health and social insurance are not unified and are not really suitable for the current situation, causing difficulties in medical examination and treatment activities... State management of private medical and pharmaceutical practice still faces many difficulties, is not proactive in following a long-term orientation, and many localities are still passive.

Towards a fair and modern healthcare system

In 2019 and the following years, Nghe An health sector has been aiming to build and develop Nghe An province's health system in a fair, gradually modern, effective and developed direction; ensuring that all people enjoy primary health care services, expanding access to and use of quality health services.

The specific goals are: Reducing morbidity, mortality and disability; controlling infectious diseases, common and emerging epidemics, preventing major epidemics from occurring; limiting and gradually controlling risk factors of non-communicable diseases, diseases related to the environment, lifestyle, behavior, nutrition, school-related diseases; effectively implementing national target programs in the health sector.

Heart surgery at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: Tu Thanh

The sector focuses on developing and improving the quality of medical examination, treatment and rehabilitation services at all levels; developing universal health care, family doctors, prioritizing primary health care, universal health coverage combined with specialized health care development; enhancing health care for the elderly, the poor and children under 6 years old; developing non-public health, enhancing socialization in public units, enhancing public-private coordination; enhancing the combination of traditional medicine with modern medicine in health care.

The sector will focus on developing medical human resources in both quantity and quality; increasing medical human resources for rural, mountainous, remote, border areas and some specialties; focusing on developing highly qualified medical human resources, striving to achieve a reasonable structure between doctors and nurses, technicians... ensuring a balance between training and effective use of medical human resources, and attaching importance to fostering medical ethics.

Continue to implement important projects on restructuring the organizational apparatus of units in the industry, specifically: Project on restructuring the organizational apparatus, streamlining the payroll and restructuring the team of civil servants and public employees of public health service units in Nghe An province for the period 2018 - 2021 and the following years; Project on establishing the Provincial Center for Disease Control on the basis of merging 6 centers; Project on merging the District Center for Population - Family Planning into the District Health Center.

Checking the progress of building a pilot model at Nam Thai Commune Health Station (Nam Dan). Photo: Thanh Chung

The sector implements solutions to help ensure a stable population size, proactively maintain a reasonable birth rate, control the growth rate of the sex ratio at birth, improve population quality, meet people's needs for family planning services, increase access to quality reproductive health services, and strengthen the integration of population factors into policy making and socio-economic development plans at all levels and sectors.

In addition, strengthening food safety control throughout the entire food supply chain has been established and effectively promoted; proactively protecting the health and interests of consumers, meeting the needs of development and international economic integration... Continuing to strictly implement Directive 03/CT-UBND dated January 29, 2018 on continuing to strengthen the management of non-public medical and pharmaceutical practice activities in Nghe An province.

Promote innovation in operating mechanisms and financial autonomy mechanisms in the health sector, advise on rapidly increasing public investment in health, developing universal health care; effectively use health financial resources to reduce the rate of direct expenditure from households for health care, increase income for health workers... Ensure adequate supply of quality medicines, vaccines, biological products, blood, blood products and medical equipment at reasonable prices to meet people's needs for disease prevention and treatment.

Application of information technology in assessing patient satisfaction at Tay Nam General Hospital. Photo: Tu Thanh

In addition, the sector has increased investment in building health infrastructure, especially key health projects, creating conditions for the development of specialized and high-tech technical expertise. Contributing to improving the quality and efficiency of people's health care and implementing health programs and goals; developing a synchronous information technology infrastructure with unified planning; ensuring vertical and horizontal connectivity throughout the health sector. Improving management capacity and capacity to implement health policies, promoting administrative reform, developing a health information system to meet the needs of innovation and development of the health sector.

To achieve high results, in the coming time, Nghe An Health sector will strive to promote democracy, strengthen leadership and direction at the grassroots level, take advantage of the direction of the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee, provincial departments, branches, and sectors, Party committees and People's Committees at all levels, creating strength to successfully implement the set goals and orientations./.