Ministry of Health to cut 30% administrative procedures

Vietnam’s Ministry of Health commits itself to trimming off 30% of administrative procedures for better convenience of people and businesses in the coming time, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long has said.

100% of health facilities will participate in remote medical examination and treatment, including the private health centers.

Mr. Long was speaking at the National Health Digital Transformation Conference (eHealth Vietnam Summit 2020) on December 30 in Hanoi.

"Despite the impact of Covid-19, the health sector still made efforts to carry out digital transformation. It is the first ministry to have completed before the deadline the digital transformation work assigned by the government," Mr. Long said.

It has completed providing all online public health services at stage 4, the highest in a four-level scale of e-government.

The ministry has applied digital signatures and digitized all documents, at the same time, using app for tracking progress and quality of paperwork settlement.

“We set a target of better serving the people, giving them more convenient access to quality services,” said the Minister of Health.

In the prevention of Covid-19, information technology has contributed greatly to the pandemic prevention work. Particularly, Vietnam is the first country to apply electronic medical declarations, contact tracing application Bluezone and Covid-19 safety maps.

Targets for 2025

The public health portal of Vietnam

During the pandemic, Vietnam opened 1,000 remote clinics in 45 days, and currently the number of hospitals participating in this network exceeds 1,500, helping people access high-standard services at the local level.

In the national digital transformation program to 2025 for the health sector, 100% of health facilities will participate in remote medical examination and treatment, including the private health centers.

The Ministry of Health has also cooperated with the Vietnam Social Insurance Agency to build nearly 98 million electronic health records and provide coverage for 42 specialties treating outpatients. From July 2021, all outpatients must have electronic personal health record, otherwise their treatment would not be covered by the health insurance agency.

In November, the Ministry of Health opened for the first time the public health portal to ensure transparency of all medical services. Currently, 1,490 medical facilities and hospitals nationwide have publicly listed their service fees. 

The ministry will require all clinics to make public their medical service fees, quality levels, as well as patients’ satisfaction assessments, according to Mr. Long.