Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The 108 Military Central Hospital and Facing the World, a UK-based charity foundation, have formed a partnership to provide surgeries for children with facial deformities in Vietnam.

The five-year cooperation programme was signed by Major General Le Huu Song, Director of the 108 Military Central Hospital, and Facing the World CEO Katrin Kandel at a ceremony in Hanoi on November 19.

Under the agreement, Facing the World will provide training fellowships to 108 Military Central Hospital doctors. The foundation will promote cooperation between experts from Facing the World and the hospital's doctors, including both teaching in Vietnam and fellowship programmes abroad. It will also help promote collaboration between the 108 Military Central Hospital and England's Royal College of Surgeons.

The 108 Military Central Hospital will cover additional funding to invite expert doctors from Facing the World to the hospital for academic and research collaboration.

Speaking at the ceremony, Major General Song said that the agreement will not only help bring smiles to Vietnamese children with facial deformities, but will also give the hospital’s medical staff the opportunity to go abroad to study and receive professional training from leading experts.

With the support of Facing the World, the Centre for Craniofacial and Plastic Surgery was established at the 108 Military Central Hospital as the country’s first centre to perform specialised craniofacial orthopaedic techniques in December 2018.

The foundation also organised over 100 fellowship visits for Vietnamese medical specialists and donated InTouch Health telemedicine systems to all partner Vietnamese hospitals.

In the next five years, Facing the World plans to establish appropriate self-sustaining craniofacial centres and outreach programmes in Vietnam. It will also sponsor training missions to its partner hospitals in Vietnam and provide 40,000 operations for children with facial deformities in Vietnam.

The 108 Military Central Hospital has also received a certification from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in recognition of the professional skills of the hospital's surgeons.

The certification not only demonstrates the training quality of the Hanoi hospital, but also reflects the capacity and professionalism of all doctors and medical experts who work there.

In 2023, the 108 Military Ce✤ntral Hospital, Hong Ngoc and Viet Duc University Hospital were the first three hospitals in Vietnam to receive prestigious accreditation from the Royal College of Surgeons of England./💖.