VietNamNet Bridge – The development of a family doctor system
in Viet Nam was handicapped by inadequate Government support, said a health
expert at a recent workshop in the capital city. But, if present plans prevail,
change is on the way.
According to the Ministry of
Health, few students are attracted to study the subject in medical schools.
Only about 500 doctors have been trained in family medicine throughout the
nation in the past 10 years, an incredibly low number compared to the needs of
a population of more than 80 million.
Many medical graduates refuse to
work as family doctors at local clinics due to this lack of support and the
fear of being forced under Government schemes to work in poor and remote
communities.
"The country has no
family-doctor system," said director of the HCM City Medical and
Pharmaceutical University's Family Doctor Centre Pham Le An. "A family
doctor cannot even send patients with serious diseases to hospitals for
treatment. That is such a barrier," An said.
Deputy director of the National
Paediatrics Hospital, Pham Nhat An, said the nation's few family doctors were
general doctors who worked in health clinics at the grassroots level.
The director of the Family
Medicine Faculty of the Hue Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Nguyen Minh
Tam, said family doctors should be trained to manage common diseases and
ailments.
Director of the ministry's
Medical Services Administration, Luong Ngoc Khue, said that if family doctors
received more recognition, they could help screen patients, sending them to
higher levels if necessary and reducing hospital overload.
"The development of a
family-doctor model would stabilise and improve the quality of people's
health-care and protection at the grassroots level," said Khue.
Pham Le An added that a proper
family-doctor system would reduce the working load on specialists and lower
treatment fees.
During the next four years, the
Ministry of Health plans to carry out a family doctor pilot project in Ha Noi,
Hai Phong, Da Nang, Thua Thien Hue, Can Tho and HCM City.
It aims to improve the quality of
primary health care for the common people and ease the country's pressing
problem of overloaded hospitals.
Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim
Tien said the health sector would create favourable conditions to attract
students to study and work in family medicine.
Tien said special benefits should
be given to those who pursued family medicine in medical schools.
According to a ministry draft,
family doctors would become part of the ministry's health-care system.
Patients who used their services
would be covered by health insurance.
Medical-school graduates who
study family medicine for an extra 18 months would also receive a family-doctor
certificate.
General doctors trained in family
medicine could practise in provincial hospitals or could open or work at
round-the-clock health clinics. Family doctors could also work both in State or
private medical units
The minister said that the
ministry would allow family doctors to send patients to hospitals.
VietNamNet/VNS
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