Care, protection and improvement of people's health

With acumen in direction and administration, provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have paid much attention to the local health sector, especially preventive health. This is one of the important "stoppers" determined by the province to further invest in improving public healthcare.

Medical socialization breakthrough

Over the past time, the province’s policy to encourage medical socialization has created conditions for public health facilities to be proactive, creative, and improve the quality of medical examination and treatment services at the society’s. increasing demands for healthcare. Along with that, the province's network of non-public medical facilities reached the strongest development over the past 5 years. Specifically, the province put 4 private hospitals and over 1,700 new beds into use. The province’s health socialization work was promoted, attracting many participants. So far, the whole province has had a total of 878 non-public medical facilities.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son and Nguyen Loc Ha, member of provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice-Chairman of provincial People's Committee inspect Covid-19 prevention and control in Thuan An city’s concentrated isolation area

The province now has 5 medical joint venture projects, including the hemodialysis project at provincial General Hospital and 4 joint venture projects at Thuan An city’s Health Center (CTS scanner; construction of an inpatient examination and treatment area at demands; installation of machines in the fields of traditional medicine and rehabilitation; installation of immunofluorescence machines and portable arterial blood gas analyzers for emergency department). In addition, the province also has 44 private health facilities on vaccination, and 5 private units on working environment surveillance . In the context of public units promoting financial autonomy, mobilizing resources from the private sector to develop public health facilities gets more and more concerned.

Huynh Thanh Ha, Deputy Director of provincial Department of Health said that the policy to encourage socialization has changed public health units’ thought in mobilizing capital for professional services without waiting for the State budget. The movement of medical socialization has loomed large across the province. Over the past 5 years, Thu Dau Mot city called on socialization resources for the implementation of 7 projects such as medical centers, equipment for antenatal care clinic, and methadone treatment facilities. Tan Uyen town also developed 1 general hospital, 7 general clinics, 48 ​​specialized clinics, 12 medical services, 11 traditional medicine rooms, 1 company medical station and 411 private pharmacy facilities. From the effective implementation of socialization work, medical centers in the province have accumulated their career development fund to reinvest in material facilities and develop medical human resources, gradually creating trust for the local people.

In addition to the development of the private healthcare system, provincial General Hospital has made many positive changes and achieved important achievements in medical examination and treatment. Dr. Van Quang Tan, Director of provincial General Hospital said that over the past time, the hospital has deployed many technical items under the lines and techniques beyond the lines. Currently, the hospital is maintaining and further developing a number of key techniques such as endoscopic surgery, joint replacement surgery, coronary interventional angiography, STI treatment for dengue fever, snakebite treatment..., greatly contributing to  improving its quality of medical examination and treatment.

Preventive health - A barrier to protect public health

These days, Covid-19 has got very complicated. The province’s health sector in general and preventive health workers in particular are straining to fight Corona virus. Everywhere in the province, the whole political system and frontline forces against the pandemic have raised high the spirit of pandemic prevention and attack.  The province has also carried out a comprehensive, all-out and swift offensive to stamp out the pandemic in areas with infection cases. Currently, the province is well implementing 6 golden principles in Covid-19 prevention and control: prevention, detection, isolation, zoning, thorough suppression and effective treatment to minimize the rate of death. The province’s strategy in the new phase against the pandemic is to encircle, zone, intercepte in order to tighten control over infection sources and cut off infection chains outside. The province has also emphasized its strategy of "Putting people and businesses at the center", getting ready to intercept and protect industrial parks from the pandemic.

The interception target has been proven by the province’s health sector since early days of fighting the pandemic. This spirit is always ingrained in every medical staff’s way of thinking and doing. Doctor Pham Nguyen Tuan Vu, Head of Di An city’s anti- Covid-19 mobile team said that these days, members of the city’s anti-Covid-19 mobile team went to people's houses to investigate the epidemiology of F1 cases. F2 around the clock. “At peak times, we slept on the side of the road, or hurriedly ate bread in hot, tight protective suits. There were days when we received urgent investigation tasks, we had no time to have lunch, only took a quick sip of water, and then rushed to the road because we understand that if we do not do it quickly and quickly track down, the risk of the pandemic will spread in the community ", said Dr. Vu.

Currently, not only Doctor Vu but also the entire medical sector shares the same determination to overcome difficulties and challenges to repel the pandemic. Along with well controlling the pandemic,  the province’s preventive health system has also excelled at monitoring emerging and dangerous infectious diseases such as Ebola, MERS-CoV, Zika together with other endemic infections such as dengue fever, measles, foot-and- mouth disease, rabies, Japanese encephalitis, swine streptococcus... The province’s vaccination campaigns to supplement vaccines are effectively organized when there is a risk of disease outbreak. As a result, most of the dangerous and emerging diseases were prevented. In particular, seasonal diseases are also under control with the number of cases decreasing year by year. The success of preventive health strategies can save people, prolong their longevity, and change the lives of the whole community.

Reflecting objectively on the field of preventive health, Mr. Ha said: "Reportedly, the province was one of the country’s leading localities in the fight against smallpox, influenza A/H1N1, Japanese encephalitis, foot-and- mouth disease ... Especially, the province’s preventive health sector well took measures to thoroughly handle the risk of outbreaks of dengue fever and Zika; well controlled Covid-19 pandemic and achieved many respectable achievements over the past time. The province had no case of Zika virus infection and there was no outbreak on dengue fever on large scale. As for Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, the province recorded  no Covid-19 infection in the community. In the 4th  wave of the pandemic, the whole province, as of June 24, recorded 191 infection cases in the community and the pandemic is now under control”.  

It is known that the whole province now has 3 provincial-level hospitals, 6 provincial-level specialized centers, 9 district-level medical centers, 19 regional-level general clinics, 91 medical stations, 2 sectoral hospitals, 15 private hospitals, 57 private general clinics, 24 corporate medical stations; 658 private specialized clinics and 3,008 pharmacy practice establishments. Provincial Center for Disease Control has been perfected on the basis of merging 4 units of preventive health, social diseases, health education center and HIV/AIDS center.

Up to now, there are 100% communes, wards and townships with medical stations, doctors; 20.04 hospital beds per 10,000 people; 7.5 doctors per 10,000 people; 100% communes, wards, towns meeting national criteria for communal health; 100% of health stations with doctors and midwives; 100% quarters, hamlets  with medical staff and collaborators.

Reported by Kim Ha-Translated by K.T