The United States Agency for International Development () on December 15 launched the (LHSS) project in Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The United States Agency
for International Development (USAID) on December 15 launched the Local Health
System Sustainability (LHSS) project in Vietnam.
The project aims to strengthen the Vietnamese
Government’s capacity to sustainably manage HIV and tuberculosis (TB) programmes
towards achieving the country’s commitment to end and by 2030.
USAID/Vietnam Mission Director Ann Marie Yastishock, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen and representatives of the Health
Ministry’s agencies, and other leaders from Vietnam Social Security and the
Ministry of Finance attended the event.
Through the LHSS Vietnam project, USAID will continue
to work with the Vietnamese Government, focusing on four main objectives – strengthening
public financial management systems for the health sector and finding greater
efficiencies in social health insurance; increasing and improving the
efficiency of domestic financing of HIV prevention and treatment services; strengthening
the capacity of Vietnam’s supply chain
management system; and integrating TB services into social health insurance.
Speaking at the launching event, USAID/Vietnam Mission
Director Ann Marie Yastishock congratulated the Vietnamese Government and the Ministry
of Health on the successful transition of HIV response from donor to domestic
funding, with Social Health Insurance (SHI) as the primary financing mechanism.
Vietnam now has 90 percent of HIV patients enrolled in
SHI. All treatment facilities can now be reimbursed for HIV services. Most
importantly, SHI funds are now used to procure anti-retroviral drugs, the most
expensive component of an HIV response.
“This is a remarkable trajectory of success – one we
are all proud to share with Vietnam. USAID, through PEPFAR, has supported the
government in updating policies and building systems that would support this
transition,” she stressed.
LHSS Vietnam is a four-year project (2020 – 2024) with
a planned budget of 13.9 million USD, funded by the US government through
PEPFAR and USAID.
It is a part of USAID’s global initiative in integrated
health systems strengthening to help low- and middle-income countries
transition to sustainable, self-financed health systems as a means to support
access to universal health coverage.
According to Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen,
between 2014 and 2020, his ministry has closely coordinated with USAID to implement
two finance projects in the medical sector, comprising the health finance and
governance (HFG) project and the USAID Sustainable Financing for HIV (SFA)
project.
Within the framework of the event, there was a seminar
on domestic human resources for health care./.
Source: VietnamPlus
