Health
Strengthening Provincial Health Systems
Increasing urbanization, changing lifestyles and the Vietnamese population’s altering age structure have led to changes in the prevailing disease patterns. Today, injuries, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic diseases like diabetes are the most frequent causes of death. Due to this shift in disease patterns more sophisticated diagnostics and services are needed. Health facilities need to upgrade and strengthen their diagnostic and treatment capacity. This leads to higher overall costs, especially for provincial and district hospitals, which have an important function in the Vietnamese health system regarding the support and supervision of lower-level health services.
To respond to these challenges, Vietnamese-German Development Cooperation has initiated a project aimed at strengthening the provincial health systems to improve the access of poor and disadvantaged population groups to health services. The activities are targeted to five of Vietnam’s poorest provinces – Thanh Hoa, Phu Yen, Yen Bai, Thai Binh and Nghe An .The experiences are fed back into the national policy dialogue. Within the “Strengthening Provincial Health Systems” program, Germany funds medical equipment for diagnostic, therapeutic and specialist departments, while advice is provided to the hospitals regarding procurement, tendering, distribution and maintenance of equipment, as well as waste management. At the same time, Vietnamese-German Development Cooperation supports the strengthening of institutions and competencies in the area of health planning and management, and contributes to the quality improvement of curative and preventative health services at provincial and district level. A German integrated expert works with one of the health ministry’s most important post-graduate training institutions to support their long–term and short-term courses in hospital management.
Learning opportunities and rehabilitation for children with disabilities
According to the 2010 national census, 12,1 million persons in Viet Nam are physically or mentally impaired - including those persons with disabilities resulting from the aftermath of war. This accounts for 15,5% of the Vietnamese population. As the road traffic in Vietnam increases, the number of traffic accidents is rising steeply. Many casualties suffer severe injuries that can lead to physical and mental impairment.
Germany and Vietnam are working closely to promote the integration of people with disabilities in the following areas: In the province of Thua Thien-Hue Germany contributes to an initiative in Community Based Rehabilitation. This initiative is particularly giving trainings to physiotherapists to be able to teach basic rehabilitative methods to health workers and family members of persons with disabilities. In the field of Early Intervention/Education German experts give advice and assist with curricula development and work with parents of disabled children. On a national level, Germany supports Viet Nam in setting up a program of study in Special Education at the University of Hanoi and Hue by assisting in the development of the university curricula and up-to-date teaching materials.
© 2011 - German Development Cooperation with Vietnam