Use of traditional Vietnamese medicine expanded nationwide

The workshop aimed to review ten years of implementing a direction of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee on the development of the traditional Vietnamese medicine sector.

According to statistics revealed at the workshop, the number of beds at traditional medicine hospitals nationwide has doubled since 2008.

As of 2017, the number of communal clinics using traditional medicine had increased by nearly 24% compared to 2008.

More than 70% of communes using traditional medicine in the country have health insurance coverage.

Traditional medicine health care services in the private sector are reported to have multiple forms with a growing number of services such as private hospitals, clinics, traditional medicine business facilities and medicinal material wholesale facilities.

There is a growing trend to combine Vietnamese traditional medicine with Western medicine.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that over the years since the direction took effect in 2008, the ministry had enforced 46 legal documents related to the management of traditional medicine.

She hailed the sector for making progress including the planting and growing of medicinal materials and the control of fake materials.

“Quality of treatment methods using traditional Vietnamese medicine combined with modern one has been paid more attention. The health care system using traditional medicine has also improved from central to local levels,” she said.

A legal system related to Vietnamese traditional medicine has been applied in private and public sectors.

However, participants agreed that investment to develop traditional Vietnamese medicine has not been in tandem with the important role of traditional medicine in health care. Meanwhile, current regulations have loopholes that hinder traditional medicine development.

Many officials are not fully aware of traditional medicine’s role in treatment and disease prevention, participants said.