Promotion of the Development of Traditional Medicine

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Dr. Specialist II Trinh Ngoc Hiep, deputy director of the Department of Health, said that in the last five years, the medical examination and treatment system using traditional medicine in the public health centers of the province has established and expanded. Specifically, the Provincial Hospital of Traditional Medicine and Rehabilitation, with an initial endowment of 170 beds, has now been extended to 270 beds; All provincial general hospitals and three district general hospitals have traditional medicine departments; The remaining four general hospitals at the district level have traditional medicine equipment; More than 89% of communal, neighborhood and urban health posts examine and treat patients using traditional medicine; 82.5% of health positions at the communal, neighborhood and city level have medicinal herbal orchards. In addition, the province currently has 178 non -public traditional medicine clinics, all of them authorized to operate and have practice certificates as prescribed.

At the same time, the provincial health sector also focuses on the research and conservation of medicinal resources. In the province, there are currently four units and facilities that cultivate medicinal herbs: Dan Loi Oriental Medicine Company Limited; Lien are medicinal Farm Sociedad Anónima; Van Huong company; THIE NAM COMPANY. Eastern medicine associations of all levels periodically organize activities to replicate valuable remedies and popular experiences in the treatment of traditional medicine. So far more than 400 good remedies have been preserved and promoted.

To guarantee the protection, care and improvement of people’s health, the provincial health sector intends to continue developing traditional medicine. In this sense, by 2030, 95% of general and specialized hospitals will have a traditional medicine department; 100% of communal, neighborhood, municipal and equivalent health positions have implemented consultation activities, health care, medical examination and traditional medicine treatment. At the same time, the rate of exams and medical treatments at the provincial level reached 25%, at the district level 30%and 40%communal level; The payment rate of drugs based on traditional herbs and medicines in the centers of examination and medical treatment from the health insurance fund in the total cost of the medications reaches 30%, of which the cost of using drugs based on herbs locally available in treatment is at least 5%.

At the same time, medical exams and treatments with traditional medicine are increasing. Consequently, the total number of examinations and treatments of internal patients who use traditional medicine in provincial centers increased from 133,000 (in 2019) to more than 202,200 (in 2024); District route from 29,110 to 46,760; Communal routes increased from 201,000 to almost 320,000. Specifically, in 2024, the outpatient treatment rate with traditional medicine at the provincial level will represent 18% of the total outpatient treatments, and the hospital treatment rate will represent 4.3%; District Level: Autpatient patients 23.4%, hospitalized patients 6.6%; Communal level: outpatient treatment represents 24%. Only in the first quarter of 2025 almost 156,000 hospital consultations and treatments will be held with traditional medicine at all levels. Mrs. Dao Thi Dinh (58 years old, City of Nha Trang) said she had hemorrhoids for almost 5 years and had many difficulties in daily life, so she went to the Traditional Medicine Department of the Provincial General Hospital for an exam. There he was diagnosed with internal grade 3 and prescribed an injections for hemorrhoids (a combination of traditional and modern medicine). After 4 sclerotherapy injections, hemorrhoids were gradually reduced and then disappeared completely. She was very surprised because now traditional medicine has developed and has good and painless treatment methods.

I still have problems

According to Dr. Ho Ngoc Gia, director of the Dien Khanh District Medical Center, the Center Hospital has established a traditional and rehabilitation medical team located in the exam department. The services offered by the equipment include: Decoction of medicines, prescription of traditional medicine, electroacupuncture, acupuncture, hydroacupuncture, a compression massage and implantation of threads. Traditional medicine human resources represent 1.58% of total human resources. The rate of medical exams that use traditional medicine, combining traditional medicine and modern medicine, of total general medical exams and treatments at the district level represents 33.72% (an increase of 10.88% compared to 2019); The communal level is 58.04% (it rose 16%). However, due to lack of human resources, the hospital does not have a traditional medicine department; For health posts that do not have a doctor or pharmacist in their staff; No commune has fulfilled the “criteria to identify advanced communes in YDCT”.

Not only does the Dien Khanh District Medical Center, many public medical centers also face difficulties in developing traditional medicine. Consequently, traditional medical departments and groups have not yet been able to develop traditional medicines at the local level; Some provincial medical centers and hospitals do not have enough human resources in traditional medicine to develop; The acquisition of medicines and ingredients of traditional medicine is difficult because there are no participating contractors; In the medical stalls, medicinal herbs are built, but the scale is only to serve as a model so that people can easily recognize the uses of each type of plant, not enough to use it in treatments …

To develop and achieve the objectives of traditional medicine by 2030, the health sector recommends that the Government and Prime Minister increase the investment budget for the development of traditional medicine and support national companies to improve their ability to produce medicinal herbs and traditional medicine that comply with GACP and GMP-OMS standards. The Ministry of Health promotes the training of human resources for the field of traditional medicine and improves the quality of the tender of traditional medicine; Vietnam Social Security investigates simplification and punctual payment to medical examinations and treatments.

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