HCM CITY (VNS)— Advanced information technology systems have helped hospitals in Viet Nam improve their healthcare services, according to the head of the Medical Services Administration. Dr Luong Ngoc Khue spoke at a two-day conference held in HCM City last week on healthcare services. It was organised by the department in collaboration with the European Union. A survey of 34 hospitals in 48 provinces and cities nationwide showed that only 27 of them had applied technology applications to improve their healthcare services, according to Khue. Dr Tang Chi Thuong, the head of the Peadiatric Hospital No.1, said his staff had used patient-record management software and e-prescription software. E-prescriptions allow doctors to write and send complete and accurate prescriptions that help reduce potential errors, including illegible handwriting, formula errors, dosage questions and potential allergy and drug interaction risks, according to Thuong. With the use of IT, hospital management … [Read more...]

HA NOI (VNS)— Public-private partnership (PPP) in the health sector should take more account of human resources and healthcare practices, said Luong Ngoc Khue, director of the Ministry of Health's Department of Medical Service Administration. During a PPP workshop in Ha Noi yesterday, Khue said that projects had so far focused on developing hospital infrastructures at the expense of medical programmes. "Experience from regional countries show that PPP should be invested in supplying medical services and improving its quality and effectiveness," he said. He suggested PPP should give priority to hospital logistics services, developing a satellite hospital model, transmitting technology to grassroots levels and improving hospital management. Khue gave examples of PPP programmes in other regional countries. These included preventive medicine, malaria prevention, washing hands to prevent diarrhoea, training human resources and supplying logistics services. Meanwhile, Pham Le Tuan, … [Read more...]

HCM CITY — The World Health Organisation (WHO) will provide Viet Nam with more than US$22 million in aid towards developing the domestic health sector in 2012 and 2013, according to the Ministry of Health. Some of the areas in which Viet Nam will continue to receive WHO aid are prevention of infectious and non-infectious diseases, improvement of health care for mother and children, and health policy adjustments, Wu Guogao, WHO country representative, said at a recent workshop. Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen said WHO had provided a lot of valuable assistance to Viet Nam's healthcare sector for many years. She said technical assistance and expertise provided by WHO had helped improve policy, expedite administrative reforms and promote health insurance. WHO assistance had helped improve the quality of doctors and other medical staff, and the quality of healthcare in the country, she added. — VNS … [Read more...]

HAI DUONG — Deputy director of Hai Duong Department of Health, Do Thi Thanh Xuan, said more than 570 cases of abortion were reported in the province in the first six month this year, and nearly 300 of them were workers from industrial zones. But Hoang Thi Thu, head of the provincial Labour Federation's Woman Association, said that while taking care of female workers' reproductive health was important, few enterprises in the province paid much attention to it. The province now has nearly 200 industrial enterprises in the nine industrial zones – and 70 per cent of their workers are female. However, only 40 per cent of them receive gynaecology checks during their annual health review. Thu said it was difficult to arrange training courses to help the women and girls as they often worked overtime. Most healthcare information in the province was generally given in the home. She said industrial zones in the province did not have medical stations to treat or help workers and the … [Read more...]