Free medical checkups, medicines offered to 6 million poor people

Outstanding organisations and individuals honoured at the conference (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – More than 6 million poor people were provided with free
health checkups and medicines thanks to a humanitarian programme on treatment and
in the 2014-2017 period.

The
programme was designed to call for entire society’s engagement in humanitarian
medical checkups and treatment, thus helping to improve the services for the
needy, with priority given to poor, remote, border and island areas.

Jointly
organised by the , the Ministry of Health, the Vietnam
People’s Army’s General Department of Politics and the Association of Vietnam’s
Young Doctors, the programme targets to give and medicines
to at least 1 million people each year.

After
four years of implementation, the programme offered medical checkups and
medicines to over 6 million people across the country with a total cost of more
than 1,318 billion VND, including 525 billion VND worth of medicines.

The
programme saw the participation of more than 257,300 doctors and health workers,
while receiving support from many organisations, enterprises and individuals.

Vice
President of the Vietnam Red Cross Society Tran Thi Hong An said that the
programme has contributed to implementing social security policies of the Party
and State, while sharing the burden with the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile,
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien said that it has brought high-quality
healthcare services to locals in extremely disadvantaged areas, while
encouraging young doctors to reach remote areas to ease difficulties for the
poor.

He
suggested that in the coming time, the programme should take advantage of local
health workers to reduce costs.-VNA