Great achievements

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long

Long said at the national conference of the healthcare sector on January 6 that the biggest achievement of the sector in 2020 was the successful control of Covid-19. All Vietnamese joined forces to fight the pandemic, which had never been seen before and was similar to a war effort.

During the pandemic, Vietnam showed its firm stuff and wisdom when becoming one of the first four countries to successfully sequence the coronavirus gene and one of five countries to produce antibodies.

It is also one of a few countries which are manufacturing vaccines against Covid-19, and making medical bio-products and ventilators.

Long said Vietnamese people gained these great achievements thanks to the unanimity among people and organizations joining forces to fight the pandemic under the direction of the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

The fight against the pandemic has been effective also thanks to media campaigns. Accurate information about the pandemic has been delivered to people through different channels. Telecom carriers have sent 20 billion SMS messages to people, a record high number.

Since February 2020, border guards have set up more than 1,600 check points with more than 10,000 soldiers guarding the border. Many of them have been on duty for the last six months and still have not returned home.

The fight against the pandemic has been effective also thanks to media campaigns. Accurate information about the pandemic has been delivered to people through different channels. Telecom carriers have sent 20 billion SMS messages to people, a record high number.

Just within a short time, the Vietnam Fatherland Front successfully mobilized VND2 trillion to help fight the pandemic.

Some mothers sold part of their assets, and one man told the Prime Minister he was willing to sell the land of his family to get money to support the fight.

Despite the success, Long called on agencies, organizations and people not to be complacent about the achievements and neglect their duties to fight the pandemic. Fighting Covid-19 will still be the top priority task in 2021.

2021: reducing paper usage

The minister said the healthcare sector carried out strong reform in 2020. It was one of two sectors that upgraded online public services to the fourth level just within six months, connecting with the national one-stop-shop portal. And it committed to continue to cut 30 percent of administrative procedures this year.

The Ministry of Health in 2020 for the first time implemented 90 percent of its program on building laws and ordinances. It plans to submit a draft law on examination and treatment and an amended health insurance law.

Within 45 days, the healthcare sector connected 1,000 remote examination and treatment points, while the number of points reached 1,500. It is expected that from now to 2025, 100 percent of medical establishments nationwide will have connections for remote examination and treatment.

In 2020, Vietnamese surgeons successfully conducted complicated surgeries, including intestinal transplants, organ transplants, twins dissection, and limb transplants.

The primary healthcare program has brought initial results. The average height of Vietnamese people in the 1990-2000 period was equal to Japanese people in 1945-1955. If all intervention measures are implemented, height will be further improved.

Regarding digital transformation, within a short time, digital products were created, including the medical network application platform which connects all doctors and medical workers at different levels; and the V20 commune medical center connections.

Elaborating on the plan for 2021, Long said AI will be applied in licensing drugs, from March. Meanwhile, from July, medical examinations will be provided without using paper. Medical records will also be shared among medical centers.

At present, many medical centers are sharing data and test results. However, this is just a first step. In the future, medical records will be shared among hospitals at all levels, which is a foundation for applying AI and Big Data to analyze and anticipate disease trends in order to find timely solutions. 

Le Ha

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