Chau Khe Commune (Con Cuong District): Maintaining National Standard Quality in Healthcare

(Baonghean) - Chau Khe commune is located about 16 km west of Con Cuong district center along National Highway 7. With 23.5 km of border and a natural area of ​​over 44,000 hectares, transportation and people's lives still face many difficulties. Despite this, with the attention and investment of the State and the efforts of the locality, Chau Khe has achieved success in various fields, most notably in healthcare and public health.

Facilities and office building of Chau Khe Commune Health Station (Con Cuong).

Having just returned from a meeting at the commune, Dr. Loc Dang Sao, head of the Chau Khe Commune Health Station, quickly put on his white lab coat and made a brief tour of the departments to inquire about the examination situation before returning to his office. Beginning our conversation, the head doctor shared: "Because there are few doctors and nurses, and many patients, I have to come back to work with the others as soon as I leave. If one person is missing, someone else has to take over, which is very difficult."

Due to its convenient location and high-quality medical services, not only residents of Chau Khe commune but also people from neighboring communes such as Lang Khe, Chi Khe, Cam Lam, and Don Phuc come to the Chau Khe Health Station for examination and treatment, with 40-45 people visiting daily. With a staff of 6 people, including 2 managers and 4 others each specializing in a different field, the station's staff must work very hard to meet the workload.

Despite the hardships, the doctors and nurses here are very open and welcoming to the people. A patient who brought her child from Chom Lom village (Lang Khe commune) to Chau Khe Health Station for treatment said: "Whether you're from outside or inside the commune, the doctors and nurses examine you all with the same care and guidance. Moreover, the treatment here is better, so I feel more at ease."

Nurses in Chau Khe commune stitched up and treated wounds for elementary school students from Lang Khe commune.

In addition to providing Western medicine examinations and treatments, one of the priorities that Chau Khe Health Station strives to achieve when meeting national health standards is to implement traditional Eastern medicine examinations and treatments such as pulse diagnosis for acupuncture and acupressure for certain diseases; and to build a medicinal herb garden to preserve valuable medicinal plants. With the active participation of the local authorities and village elders, within just one year, the station has built a medicinal herb garden in accordance with regulations.

Station chief Loc Dang Sao recalled: "In striving to achieve national standard recognition in healthcare, based on the station's request, all organizations actively participated: young people and women contributed labor to level the station's grounds, respected elderly people from the villages contributed medicinal plants to build a medicinal herb garden, some villages contributed cement, and others transported soil to help the station level the grounds."

According to regulations, only 40 types of medicinal plants are required to meet the standards, but the traditional medicine garden at the commune's health station has up to 100 species, including rare medicinal plants sourced from high forests and deep streams, which only local traditional healers can find.

Doctor Loc Dang Sao, the station chief, introduces a type of tree called "mu bang" - a valuable medicinal plant used to stop bleeding and treat bone diseases - from the station's herbal garden.

In addition to providing health insurance-covered medical examinations and medications to the people, to effectively carry out preventive healthcare, the Chau Khe Commune Health Station regularly organizes training and awareness campaigns in the community for women and students; it also conducts monitoring and guidance on disease prevention for village health workers; and organizes the treatment of mosquito nets with chemicals in villages located in remote areas... Thanks to effective preventive measures, for decades, despite being a remote commune, Chau Khe has not experienced any outbreaks of disease; any illnesses that do occur are seasonal, such as colds and bronchitis, mainly affecting the elderly and young children.

Assessing the progress towards achieving national standards in healthcare, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Chau Khe commune, Nguyen Ngoc Luyen, said: "In nearly 5 years, along with investing about 1.3 billion VND to repair and upgrade clinics and purchase equipment as prescribed, the health station must be strengthened in terms of personnel to meet the tasks of preventive healthcare and examination and dispensing medicine to the people."

Dr. La Van Lieu, Director of the Con Cuong District Preventive Health Center, added: Chau Khe is the second border commune of Con Cuong district (along with Mon Son) and the eighth out of 13 communes and towns to achieve national health standards. This success is due not only to the efforts of the medical staff at the health station but also to the decisive support from the local authorities.

Despite limited resources and simultaneous investments in education and culture, the Party Committee and leaders of Chau Khe commune are committed to allocating resources to the national goal of improving healthcare. Alongside the issuance of resolutions and implementation plans, the commune regularly allocates funds annually to upgrade the grounds and facilities of the health station. The district, in addition to allocating funds from various programs and projects, also invests in equipment for the station.

People in Chau Khe bring their children to the commune's health station for check-ups.

Thanks to these decisive solutions, Chau Khe today not only has a health station with the most modern and well-equipped facilities in Con Cuong district, complete with all the necessary departments, examination rooms, and treatment centers as prescribed, but also a team of doctors and medical staff that meets national standards and provides a very good foundation for people's healthcare.

Station chief Loc Dang Sao further shared: Although recognized as meeting national standards, the local health work still faces many difficulties and challenges. However, we hope that with the active attention and support of the local Party committee and government, and the guidance and support from the District Preventive Health Center, the medical staff of Chau Khe Commune Health Station will unite and be determined to maintain the title of a national standard commune in healthcare.

Nguyen Hai