Speaking at the ceremony, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Manh Cuong acknowledged and praised the efforts of municipal departments, agencies, localities, and the healthcare sector in implementing the program to provide health checkups and screening for residents.
Praising the approaches taken by Thanh An Commune, Phuoc Thang Ward, and Vinh Loc Commune, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Manh Cuong said the three localities shared a common focus on leadership and direction, proactive implementation, and close coordination between local authorities and the health sector. Practical experience from these localities should continue to be shared and replicated in ways suited to the conditions of each area.
The program’s goal is not merely to reach a target number of people receiving health checkups but, more importantly, to build a database on residents’ health status. The data will provide the health sector and local authorities with a basis for identifying at-risk groups and emerging health issues, enabling them to develop appropriate healthcare and health management solutions. This will gradually shift the approach from one focused primarily on treatment to proactive disease prevention, early detection, and health management for residents.
Following the checkups, local authorities and the health sector should continue to focus on counseling and providing guidance to residents. People identified as being at risk or diagnosed with illnesses should be connected with healthcare facilities for appropriate monitoring and treatment. At the same time, checkup results should be properly managed, integrated, and effectively utilized as a basis for the health sector and local authorities to analyze population health trends and support policymaking, he emphasized.
The Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee also called on the health sector to continue coordinating with relevant departments, agencies, and localities to review and address difficulties, improve professional guidelines and coordination mechanisms, and promote the initiative and creativity of grassroots-level authorities. These efforts, he said, would help ensure the program is implemented effectively and sustainably, contributing to better healthcare for the people.
Earlier, at the ceremony, Associate Professor and Doctor Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that as of September 21, a total of 5,018,955 people across the city had received health checkups and screenings.
To date, 132 of the city’s 168 localities, or 78.6 percent, had achieved a coverage rate of at least 30 percent. Of these, 49 localities had reached 50 percent or higher, 24 had reached 60 percent or higher, and nine had reached 70 percent or higher. Meanwhile, 36 of the 168 localities had a coverage rate below 30 percent.
The three localities with the highest rates of completed regular health checkups and health records were Thanh An Commune, at 98.5 percent (2,900 of 2,950 people); Phuoc Thang Ward, at 93.5 percent (41,030 of 43,904 people); and Vinh Loc Commune, at 80 percent (40,169 of 50,366 people).
