As of 2017, the number of communal clinics using traditional medicine had increased by nearly 24 percent compared to 2008 (Photo: baothaibinh.com.vn)traditional Vietnamese medicine has been expanded, with 58 out of 63 provinces
and cities nationwide having traditional medicine hospitals, participants heard
at a workshop in Hanoi on July 17.
The workshop aimed to review ten years of implementing a
direction of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central
Committee on the development of the
sector.
According to statistics revealed at the workshop, the number
of beds at nationwide has doubled since 2008.
As of 2017, the number of using traditional
medicine had increased by nearly 24 percent compared to 2008.
More than 70 percent of communes using traditional medicine
in the country have health insurance coverage.
Traditional medicine health care services in the private
sector are reported to have multiple forms with a growing number of services
such as private hospitals, clinics, traditional medicine business facilities
and medicinal material wholesale facilities.
There is a growing trend to combine Vietnamese traditional
medicine with Western medicine.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that over the years
since the direction took effect in 2008, the ministry had enforced 46 legal
documents related to the management of traditional medicine.
She hailed the sector for making progress including the
planting and growing of medicinal materials and the control of fake materials.
“Quality of treatment methods using traditional Vietnamese
medicine combined with modern one has been paid more attention. The health care
system using traditional medicine has also improved from central to local
levels,” she said.
A legal system related to Vietnamese traditional medicine
has been applied in private and public sectors.
However, participants agreed that investment to develop
traditional Vietnamese medicine has not been in tandem with the important role
of traditional medicine in health care. Meanwhile, current regulations have
loopholes that hinder traditional medicine development.
Many officials are not fully aware of traditional medicine’s
role in treatment and disease prevention, participants said.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
