Deputy Director of the City Department of Health Nguyen Van Vinh Chau said that leaders of the Department of Health and Binh Chanh District agreed on building a detailed plan for a pilot scheme of a family doctor model like in Cuba in a commune in the coming time.
Yesterday afternoon, two leading Cuban medical experts, Professor and Doctor José Armando Aronte Villamarín and Professor and Doctor Sonia María González Vega, came to Binh Chanh District to share experiences in developing the grassroots health system and family doctor model.
In a talk with two Cuban experts, Head of Binh Chanh District Health Department Nguyen Thanh Hung said that the district has one medical center and 16 medical stations that meet national standards. Some 1,995 medical officers and staff including 701 doctors are working in healthcare centers in the district. The district’s number of physicians, nurses and midwives is 8.5 per 10,000 population.
Secretary of Binh Chanh District Party Committee Tran Van Nam added that he and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council delegation visited Cuba to learn about the country's health system.
According to him, Cuban’s healthcare system has many good points; thus, he desired the two medical experts to share more experiences to apply to the health system of Binh Chanh outlying district including developing grassroots healthcare stations with a focus on providing healthcare for people at home.
Talking about the Cuban health system, the two experts said that Cuban people receive free health care. Cuba has more than 11 million people and family doctor offices are located in every residential area across the sugar bowl nation of the world. Each family doctor's office has a family physician and nurse practitioner who are responsible for caring for 1,000 - 1,500 residents.
After the talks with the two experts, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Nguyen Van Vinh Chau said that the leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, experts and Binh Chanh district decided to develop a pilot plan for family doctor model like in Cuba in a commune of Binh Chanh district in the coming time.
According to the plan, the two Cuban medical experts would work in Ho Chi Minh City from December 25 to January 6. The Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City planned to organize workshops where Cuban experts will share their experiences of the public health model in Cuba with community health specialists in Ho Chi Minh City, districts and Thu Duc City.
