VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Minister of Health Trinh Quan Huan spoke with Tin Tuc (News) about the need to improve the nation's preventive medicine network.

The preventive health network remains poor and dispersed, causing difficulties in implementing health care activities. What will the Health Ministry do to solve the problem?

The preventive health network at the provincial level comprises many health centres such as HIV/AIDS prevention and control centres, food safety and hygiene agencies and testing centres. These centres have existed through different periods and some no longer assume the heavy responsibilities they did in the past.

For this reason, the Health Ministry is asking to establish preventive health institutes in provinces to gather such health centres as the tuberculosis centre, eye centre, dermatology centre and centre for the prevention of social diseases.

A centre for the prevention and control of malaria, for instance, was important for provinces in the past but where the disease is almost under control, it would be ideal to merge the centre into a preventive health institute.

It is difficult to implement health activities with centres as widely dispersed as they are at present. From now till 2015, health preventive institutes should be established in provinces. Health centres can be separated or merged, depending on the circumstances after these institutes are established.

What other measures will the ministry take to raise the abilities of preventive health networks?

Such institutes as the Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute in the Central Highlands have been well equipped but that is not the case with laboratories in provinces.

The ministry will pay attention to invest in more laboratories with a view to early discovery of disease outbreaks and stamping them out.

The ministry also intends to use Government bonds to build preventive health centre offices because many preventive health centres don't have a head office.

How about salary policies to keep medical staff and attract graduates?

The Health Ministry has completed legal documents and policies on providing preferential treatment to medical staff in general and those working within the preventive health network.

Once approved, allowances will be increased to health workers in mountain and remote areas.

The ministry is also asking the Government to provide seniority allowances to experienced staff.

We have also requested that students who study preventive health be free of tuition fees. As scheduled, between VND5 billion and VND10 billion (US$238,000-$476,000) is needed annually to train about 400 students in the area. What we gain will be huge because we will have a young, trained staff.

The health sector is exerting every effort to raise abilities in the preventive health network. But the sector cannot do it alone. The preventive health network needs support from different departments, especially People's Committees at various levels.

Only when provinces spend at least 30 per cent of their health budget on a preventive health network and they have good conditions, human resources and equipment, will epidemics stop occurring repeatedly.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News