The Investing and Innovating for Grassroots Health Service Delivery Project is among major healthcare projects, with a total budget of approximately 120 million USD.

Associate Professor Phan Le Thu Hang - Deputy Director of the Department of Financial Planning under the Ministry of Health, and Director of the Project Management Board for Construction Investment and Grassroots Health System Development told VietnamPlus about the National Strategy for protection, care and improvement of the people’s health through 2030, with a vision toward 2045.

More than 110 million USD will be spent on developing a grassroots healthcare network in disadvantaged areas in Vietnam, the Ministry of Health announced at the conference to launch Phase I of the healthcare development programme on December 5.

According to a WHO report, Vietnam is currently ranked 11th among 30 countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Basic health indexes of Vietnamese people have improved remarkably after 20 years. For example, the average life expectancy increased from 71.3 in 2002 to 73.6 in 2022, higher than the global average of 73 and many countries with similar per capita income level.

The Ministry of Health and the World Bank in Vietnam held a workshop in Hanoi on March 27 to discuss the orientations for developing grassroots healthcare in the new context.

At many grassroots health stations, there are so many unbelievable true stories, like a black-and-white ultrasound machine still in use after more than 20 years at a district general hospital.

Despite going through numerous critical situations during rolling outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years, the healthcare system has grown strong.

Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen on March 30 emphasised the importance of grassroots healthcare in the early detection of COVID-19 infection cases in the community to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Controlling the number of people with hypertension and diabetes is a big challenge for Vietnam, experts said.

Hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City districts have shared knowledge about advanced medical techniques in an aim to offer treatment normally provided to patients admitted to city-level or central-level hospitals, under requirements of the city’s Department of Health.