Meeting on sharing international experiences on health system development

This was also praised by Dr. Shin in his remarks at the meeting, in which he highlighted the importance of investing in grassroots health systems and primary health care when Vietnam is heading towards the area of urbanization, aging population and the burden of NCDs. This is also the focus of Vietnamese health sector in the period 2016-2020 stated by Assoc.Prof. Kim Tien, besides increasing the quality of hospitals in order to improve the quality population. 

In his sharing, Dr. Shin mentioned the issue of food safety which is not only a serious/worrisome problem in Vietnam but also in other countries including his hometown Korea which needs appropriate power to make changes. About medical training, in Korea and other countries, graduates from medical universities have to get the license before they can go to work, which is validated in 5 years. This creates strictness and requires the doctors to always maintain and upgrade their profession and skills for treating patients.

In response to the question from MOH on whether hospitals can be given full autonomy, Dr. Shin suggested that they should only be entitled partly autonomy and still need to follow basic principles regulated by the government.

From the meeting, both Vietnamese government and international development partner get to understand about the situation and priorities of the Vietnamese health sector as well as international perspectives on how to direct the health sector into the right course in the new context.