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Healthcare IT

Better healthcare for rural Vietnam

By Alice Kok | 18 November 2008

Vietnam’s south central coast region, home to nine million people, including half a million people from ethnic minorities, will have the financing of Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a project to improve healthcare services. The 32-year, US$72 million loan will be sourced from ADB’s Special Funds while the government of Vietnam will provide an additional US$8 million to complete the financing requirements.

This project will help build or upgrade 20 hospitals, five districts’ preventive medicine centres, and a training school for nurses and paramedics. It will also equip new and existing facilities with quality water, sanitation, and medical waste management systems.

Support will be given to the hiring and training of medical staff and village health workers, and for improvements in basic health care for 423 remote communes, as well as for the development of well-managed, and better-used provincial health systems. In addition to improving overall health services for the poor, the project will target healthcare for women, children, and ethnic minorities, with a special focus on reproductive health care.

Currently, Vietnam’s public healthcare system lacks the proper resources and is burdened with old facilities and equipment. At the same time, demand for health services is rising rapidly due to higher incomes and education, an aging population, rural-urban migration, and an increase in non-communicable diseases and traffic accidents.

“Given current trends, the country can only achieve its Millennium Development Goals by 2015 if it makes a considerable effort to improve the quality of care and financial access for the poor and ethnic minorities in lagging communities with high mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition rates,” said Vincent de Wit Principal Health Specialist in ADB’s Southeast Asia Department.

The Project covers Da Nang City and seven provinces (Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, and Binh Thuan) – four of which have poverty levels significantly above the national average of 19.5 per cent.

The World Bank is funding a similar project in the north central coastal region of Vietnam.

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