Building Nghe An into a specialized medical center in the North Central region

Receiving and working with the delegation, on the side of Nghe An province, there were comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Cao Thi Hien - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Bui Dinh Long - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; and leaders of relevant departments and branches.

Overview of the working session between leaders of Nghe An province and the Ministry of Health delegation. Photo: Thanh Duy

MANY TARGETS EXCEEDED THE SET PLAN

Reporting to the working group, Director of the Department of Health Duong Dinh Chinh said that in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had a strong, comprehensive and profound impact on all aspects of economic and social life. However, Nghe An's health sector has still basically completed the goals and targets of protecting, caring for and improving people's health, thereby making an important contribution to the province's socio-economic development.

The basic indicators exceeded the set plan: percentage of communes meeting the National Criteria on health (92.6/92); percentage of commune, ward and town health stations with doctors working (90/90); number of hospital beds per 10,000 people (34.9/34.4) and number of doctors per 10,000 people (10/8.5).

Thanks to the direction of all levels, the drastic participation of the entire political system; the support and consensus of the people and the proactive and active implementation of many synchronous and effective solutions, the epidemic situation has been basically well controlled, no epidemics have occurred and no deaths due to the epidemic in the province.

Comrade Duong Dinh Chinh - Director of Nghe An Department of Health presented a report at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

As of April 4, 2021, Nghe An province has not recorded any Covid-19 infections. The whole province has quarantined and monitored the health of over 75,000 cases with risk factors; organized the collection of 41,720 Covid-19 test samples.,All samples tested negative.

Nghe An province also synchronously deployed activities to ensure food safety; the quality of medical examination and treatment in the province has been constantly improved, the quality of medical services has been increasingly enhanced. The work of developing technical expertise continues to achieve important progress; many advanced techniques and specialized techniques have been and are being effectively implemented. Notably, the health sector has developed treatment regimens for 4 specialties: Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Pediatrics.

In addition, population/family planning, reproductive health care; staff organization, training and scientific research; application of information technology in health; pharmaceutical work; state management and operation of the health sector have received attention and achieved many positive results. Implementing the autonomy mechanism for 100% of public health service units in the whole province, including 1 autonomous unit of group I, 18 autonomous units of group II. Each year, saving from reducing regular expenditure is 295 billion VND.

Comrade Luong Ngoc Khue - Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

In 2021, Nghe An aims to develop a fair, high-quality, effective and sustainable health system, aiming at universal health care coverage, contributing to improving both physical and mental health and quality of life for the people. Regarding basic indicators, strive for the percentage of communes meeting the National Health Criteria (93); the percentage of commune, ward and town health stations with working doctors (90/90); the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people (35.72) and the number of doctors per 10,000 people (11).

At the meeting, members of the Ministry of Health's working group contributed many enthusiastic opinions, thereby guiding the Nghe An health sector to determine its development direction in the coming time. At the same time, they answered the recommendations and proposals of Nghe An province.

Comrade Tran Van Thuan - Deputy Minister of Health spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that the Ministry of Health will soon submit to the Government a decision approving the Project on training medical human resources in remote and isolated areas of the country, including Nghe An. In addition, the Ministry of Health is completing the draft amendments to the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment and the amended Law on Health Insurance to submit to the competent authority for approval in order to resolve the existing problems in health insurance examination and treatment. The Ministry of Health will also continue to evaluate and consider recognizing Nghe An Oncology Hospital as the final hospital of the North Central region in the near future.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH WILL SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NGHE AN HEALTH SECTOR

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung reported basic information on the province's socio-economic development situation. He emphasized that up to now, Nghe An has not recorded any Covid-19 infections and the province has devoted large resources to Covid-19 prevention and control and support according to Resolution 42 of the Government.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee emphasized that in the field of health, medical examination and treatment, and health care for the people, Nghe An province identified this as a particularly important field. It shows that although the conditions are still difficult, the system of medical examination and treatment and health care for the people has been given attention and up to now is quite complete from the provincial level to the grassroots level, basically meeting the requirements.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

The head of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee also thanked the Ministry of Health and specialized agencies, especially central hospitals, for their attention in the past time, which have supported medical examination and treatment facilities in the area with advanced techniques and specialized techniques in medical examination and treatment. In the coming time, the province will continue to direct the effective implementation of Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control, organize medical examination and treatment well to ensure people's needs; consolidate the system of medical examination and treatment facilities, and reorganize the apparatus of facilities in the medical field.

Regarding Covid-19 vaccination, comrade Nguyen Duc Trung said that through review, Nghe An has about 2.5 million people who will need to be vaccinated, of which 667,000 people are given priority for vaccination according to Resolution 21/NQ-CP of the Government.

“To carry out this work requires a huge amount of funding. Therefore, I hope the Ministry of Health will pay attention to determining the amount of vaccine supply, first of all ensuring the vaccine source for the priority subjects according to Resolution 21. For the remaining subjects, I hope the Ministry of Health will provide further guidance to the province,” said the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien guides the implementation of in vitro fertilization techniques at Nghe An General Hospital. Photo courtesy

In addition, the Ministry of Health is requested to support the province's proposal to increase resources for investment in infrastructure for medical examination and treatment facilities, especially at the provincial level. And upgrade some provincial hospitals to become end-line hospitals, providing better medical examination and treatment services for people in the North Central region. Pay more attention to policies to support grassroots medical facilities, especially in remote areas, and ethnic minority areas. Because Nghe An is a large area, mountainous areas cover a large area, the population is dense, and medical examination and treatment conditions in these areas are not good.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also requested that central hospitals continue to pay attention and help large hospitals, especially those in Vinh City, to have enough capacity to perform advanced and specialized medical techniques. Because Vinh City is identified as the economic and cultural center of the North Central region, including the medical center.

Concluding the meeting, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long assessed that the medical work and health care for people in Nghe An province in recent times have achieved remarkable achievements. This is reflected in many figures far exceeding those of other localities and exceeding the targets in Resolution 20 of the Party Central Committee.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Long - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Health spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

“This is the result of the locality’s efforts, the province’s investment and support for the health network, and the efforts of the health sector. On that basis, Nghe An’s health sector will have the conditions to develop at a higher level and faster than other localities,” the Minister of Health emphasized, adding that the Ministry of Health acknowledges the province’s recommendations and will strive, together with the province, to develop Nghe An’s health sector.

Regarding the development orientation of the province's health sector in the coming time, the Minister of Health said that it is necessary to identify, build and develop Nghe An province's health sector to become a specialized medical center of the North Central region. The Ministry of Health will focus on supporting and working with the province to implement this. At the same time, requesting central hospitals and Hanoi Medical University to comprehensively support specialties and train human resources for Nghe An's health sector.

“This must be the province’s goal and also the Ministry of Health’s goal in the North Central region, to ensure that people in the region have access to high-quality medical services, almost equivalent to those of central hospitals. A specialized medical center must be comprehensive, in all specialties and in other sectors in the entire medical field.”

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long

In addition, the head of the Ministry of Health also said that, in general, the province's development potential does not stop at services but can be linked to the economy and rural development. Therefore, the Ministry of Health hopes that Nghe An province will participate in attracting investment from businesses in the production, processing, and trading of pharmaceuticals, medicinal herbs, and medical equipment.

In his response, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy emphasized that, along with economic development, Nghe An identifies people's health care as an important priority and the health sector as a pillar of the province's development. Because Nghe An has a segment of people in rural areas and mountainous, remote and isolated areas still facing many difficulties, which greatly affects access to health services. In addition, Nghe An is an area severely affected by natural disasters, so the risk of disease outbreaks is very high.

In recent times, the province's health sector has made efforts and achieved certain achievements, contributing to the overall development of the province. The system of hospitals and health facilities has developed rapidly and widely, many high-tech health facilities have been put into operation, not only serving the people in the province but also serving the people of many neighboring provinces and the people of Laos.

Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy speaks at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Thanking the Ministry of Health for its attention to Nghe An province in the past time and the orientations, suggestions, and some specific tasks that the Minister of Health just mentioned, the Provincial Party Secretary said that the provincial health sector needs to make more efforts to meet the increasingly high demands of the people and the development trend of medicine.

Nghe An would like to fully accept and the province will pay attention and concretize it into programs and plans in the coming time to better perform the task of developing the health sector, improving the quality of medical examination and treatment, and health care for the people. At the same time, we hope to continue to receive the help of the Ministry of Health in the coming time so that Nghe An can soon become a specialized medical center of the North Central region./.