The Health Minister has announced a plan to issue policies to encouragemedical workers in disadvantaged rural and mountainous areas in theMinistry of Health’s 2011 plan, a response to Deputy Prime MinisterNguyen Thien Nhan’s call for comprehensive reforms.

At a meeting in Hanoi on Feb. 21, Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu said incelebration of Vietnam Physicians’ Day (February 27) that the medicalsector will upgrade the national network for monitoring food quality,hygiene and safety.

The ministry will also intensifyinvestment in scientific research and technological application whiledeveloping the domestic pharmaceutical industry, especially essentialdrug production, in order to meet public demand for medical treatment.

Other targets include expansion of international cooperation, strongerforeign aid attraction and better use of foreign aid to the medicalsector, and speeding up the relevant policy-making process.

Also at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nhan called on the HealthMinistry to reform its management mechanism in order to ensure goodsupply of quality medicines and increase equality in medical checks andtreatment among the population, especially the poor, and children andfamilies subject to social welfare policy.

“TheMinistry should take the initiative in forecasting epidemics, in aneffort to prevent them from breaking out,” Nhan said.

The Health Ministry reported that average Vietnamese lifespan was now at73 years, while preventive medicine was strengthened, thus containingepidemic outbreaks.

Beds in public hospitals canaccommodate 20.5 in every 10,000 citizens and health insurance coveredover 60 percent of the national population, including over 16 percent ofthe poor having access to free medical insurance cards./.