MEETING MINUTES
HPG QUARTER II MEETING
Date and Time:
8:00AM to 12:00AM, 24th June, 2014
Venue:
Fortuna Hotel
6B Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi
Chairpersons:
Prof. Le Quang Cuong, Deputy Minister, Ministry of
Health
Prof. Nguyen Cong Khan, Director General,
Administration of Science Technology and Training
Dr. Tran Thi Giang Huong, Director General, International
Cooperation Department
Dr. Takeshi Kasai, Chief Representative of WHO in Viet
Nam
Participants:
Vietnamese Delegates
Ministry of Health: Departments, Agencies, General
Departments within MOH, Hanoi Medical University,
University of Medicine and Pharmacy-Thai Nguyen
University, Hai Duong University of Technical and Health,
Nam Dinh University of Nursing, Thai Binh Medical
University, Hai Phong Medical University, Hue Medical
University, Can Tho Medical University, Ho Chi Minh
Medical University, Pham Ngoc Thach College of
Medicine, Da Nang Technical University of Medicine and
Pharmacy, Hanoi School of Public Health, Hanoi
University of Pharmarcy, Bach Mai Hospital, National
Hospital of Pediatrics, National Hospital of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Central Lung Hospital, Health Strategy and
Policy Institute.
Central Government Agencies/ Other Ministries:
Government Office, MPI, MOF, MPS, MOFA.
Health Department from provinces: Hanoi, Da Nang,
HCMC, Nghe An, Dong Thap, Yen Bai, Dien Bien, Hue.
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Development Partners
Embassy: Russian Federation, Japan, France, The USA,
Belgium
Development Banks: WB, ADB, KFW and Korean
Eximbank
Bilateral Development Agencies: GIZ, EU, JICA,
KOICA, AusAID
UN Agencies: UN, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA
NGOs: PATH, FHI, CARE, Pathfinder, FHI, Save
Children, MCNV, Atlantic Philanthropies, Marie Stopes
International, DAVPEPFAR, Malaria, AMP, AAP.
Experts / Consultants: Domestic and foreign experts of
projects
A. MAIN CONTENTS:
The meeting focused on the main contents:
I. Update HPG activities on the implementation of the VHPD and the IHP+ meeting at
the World Health Assembly
II. Medical education reform in Vietnam: Challenges and Opportunities
III. ADB & DFAT support for health human resources sector development: Achievements
and Lessons
IV. World Bank support for health professionals eduaction and training reform
V. JICA's support for continuous medical training
B. DETAILED CONTENTS:
 Opening speech by Prof. Dr. Le Quang Cuong, Deputy Minister, Ministry of
Health
In the opening speech for the HPG meeting in June, 2014, Deputy Minister Le Quang
Cuong highlighted the following issues:
Human resources in the health sector are a very important element of the health system
and the main factor that ensures the effectiveness and quality of health service. Therefore,
developing the human resources in health is one of the seven important priorities of the
health sector in the period 2011 – 2016. Over the recent years, the number of health
cadres has significantly increased but still not met the demand. There is a lack of health
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staff in preventive medicine, grassroots health and in disadvantaged areas and remote and
distant regions. Despite improvements in human resources allocation, there are still many
shortcomings that lead to the disparity in staff number and quality, training activities,
inspection, verification of health service quality between treatment and preventive sectors,
specialized fields, central and local level and urban and rural areas.
In the context of the current health staff, the Party and Government have made long-term
strategy directions for the development of medicine human resources. One of those
important strategies is Resolution 46/NQ-TW by the Politburo on protecting, caring for
and improving people’s health in the new situation. The Resolution has proposed
solutions on the strategy of the medicine human resources such as strengthening the
health staff in terms of quantity, quality and structure, rearranging the network, extending
and upgrading training institutions, meeting the demand for health staff in accordance to
the sectoral development plan, focusing on training health management staff especially
hospital management staff, developing and implementing proper remuneration policies
for health cadres and officers, arranging rotations of cadres, and encouraging doctors to
work in mountainous and disadvantaged areas and remote and distant regions.
During the past time, the health sector has also put an emphasis on raising grants to
implement the goal of developing medicine human resources. Many countries and other
international organizations have provided scholarships for Vietnamese heath cadres to
pursue further study in their specialised fields and managament and adopt the advanced
technology transfer from countries with modern health industry. Annually, the health
sector also welcomes hundreds of top-tier experts, scientists and doctors from other
countries who go to Viet Nam for technical exchange.
In order to find out the solutions to improve the quality of medicine human resources and
diversify the medical education models to meet the needs of universal health care, the
HPG meeting in quarter 4 of 2014 will focus on renovating education for medicine human
resources with the aim of developing human resources in the health sector, sharing the
directions and action plans by the government and ensuring the harmony in contributions
of development partners to this important sector. The meeting will also make room for
discussion on the solutions to the challenges in developing medicine human resources and
proposing the models for diversifying education activities to meet the sector’s actual
requirements.
Finally, on the occasion of the HPG Meeting, 4th Quarter of 2014, on behalf of the leaders
of the Ministry of Health, Deputy Minister sent his sincere thanks to the active and
effective support of Dr. Takeshi Kasai, Chief Representative of WHO in Viet Nam to the
health sector of Viet Nam in general and HPG Forum in particular. Dr. Takeshi will end
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his tenure in Viet Nam after June 2014. He hoped that, Dr. Takeshi Kasai will continue to
advocate and support the Vietnam’s health sector in his new position at WHO.
The speech is enclosed.
 Opening speech by co-chairperson, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, Chief Representative
of WHO in Viet Nam
On behalf of the WHO, Dr. Takeshi Kasai expressed his thanks to Ministry of Health for
creating an open forum and an opportunity for parties to discuss straightforward and
contribute ideas on the priorities of the Viet Nam’s health sector in 2014. He also thanked
the co-chairperson, Deputy Minister Le Quang Cuong and members of HPG for giving
him the honor to chair the Vietnam’s HPG Meeting 2014.
In his speech, Dr. Takeshi Kasai stressed the two important directions for the future of
HPG and Vietnam:
Recommendations and discussions on the new operational mechanism of HPG: The
Vietnam Health Partnership Document shows commitments and specific milestones in the
HPG’s activities. However, these commitments and milestones are performed promptly
only when the HPG’s operational mechanism is increasingly improved. He supposed that
changing working manners is not easy and will face a lot of challenges. However, this
process will be conducted openly for dialogues and consultation with each development
partner.
Education and training reform is the first step towards a new strategy of medicine human
resources: One of the firm commitments by the government is improving the quality and
access to health service by means of highly competent health staff and well-done tasks.
The first step on this way is to reform education and training for health cadres including
the establishment of a quality management and certification system. This requires changes
in the quality of the current system. He hoped that such changes will be adopted in the
context of grassroots health reform and support the government’s objective of universal
health care.
The speech is enclosed.
DISCUSSION SESSION
 Prof. Pham Minh Thong, Vice Director of Bach Mai Hospital
Prof. Thong said that the 6-year doctor education system has shown its drawbacks and it
is necessary to eliminate the articulation training system. The 18-month training system
and continued medical education after 6-year period should be implemented immediately
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and the doctors attending this training course will receive salaries. At the same time, the
school – hospital system should be governed more strictly by specific regulations. In
order to build such sytems, it is necessary for the Government, Ministries and other
central government agencies to join, not only the Ministry of Health.
 Dr. Todd Pollack, Harvard Medical School AIDS Initiative in Vietnam
(HAIVN)
As representative of a development partner, Dr. Pollack expressed goodwill towards
supporting the Vietnam’s health sector. He said that Vietnam has gained a lot of success
in the process of improving its health system. However, there are still some barriers which
slow down this process, especially the shortage of medicine human resources and uneven
allocation of health staff as well as inappropriate remuneration policy for doctors in
remote and distant regions and poor areas.
Dr. Pollack said that the update on academic content and the reform of teaching methods
in education units should receive more attention. At the same time, it is necessary to build
a system of licensing, controlling and guaranteeing the quality of the health staff and
health systems nationwide. He also hoped that the cooperation between Ministry of
Health and groups of development partners will be tightened more in the coming time,
which helps reform the education system of medicine human resources and achieve the
objectives of Vietnam’s health sector in 2014.
 Ms. Vu Thi Thuy Duong, Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegate to Vietnam
On behalf of the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegate to Vietnam, Ms. Thuy Duong introduced
the projects that are under implementation in cooperation with many major hospitals all
over Viet Nam. She shared that the Delegate expected to continue cooperation with many
more hospitals with the aim of providing scholarships for university lecturers at
undergraduate and post-graduate level to study and practise medicine abroad. In the
coming time, the Wallonie-Brussels Delegate expected to cooperate with Ministry of
Health to develop projects on educational reform and assist the health staff in such fields
as family medical care, treatment, pharmaceuticals and midwifery. They hoped to receive
active cooperation from Ministry of Health, especially the universities and development
partners to effectively develop projects of training medicine human resources.
 Dr. Le Thi Thanh Huyen, Programme Officer, UNFPA
UNFPA’s representative sent her thanks to Ministry of Health and the development
partners for putting forward detailed commitments to implement the top objectives of
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Vietnam’s health sector in the coming time; especially in the area of renovating and
enhancing the medical education quality at every level, towards international standards.
 Dr. Le Thi Minh Huong, Vice Director of National Hospital for Pediatrics
According to preliminary surveys, the pediatric population accounts for 25 – 30% of the
total population and the fatality rate of children under 5 is very high. Meanwhile, the
number of pediatric doctors is limited and mainly in large cities. Therefore, it is
imperative to build the roadmap for short-term, medium-term and long-term education of
pediatric doctors to meet the urgent demand for pediatric doctors as well as the increasing
number of pediatric patients all over the country.
 Prof. Nguyen Cong Khan, Director General,
Technology and Training (MOH)
Administration of Science
Prof. Nguyen Cong Khan stressed that the issue of top interest is how to link the system
of using health human resources with the education system closely. Ministry of Health is
fully aware of this issue and has continuously upgraded the training institutions of
medicine human resources, searched for the interests and sharing of development partners
to strengthen and improve the education system of medicine human resources in Viet
Nam.
C. CONCLUSIONS OF CO-CHAIRPERSONS
 Dr. Takeshi Kasai, Chief Representative of WHO in Vietnam
On behalf of development partner groups, Dr. Takeshi Kasai once again expressed his
thanks to Ministry of Health for creating the most favorable conditions for development
partners to contribute to the health sector, especially in the reform process of training for
medicine human resources in Vietnam.
Dr. Takeshi Kasai said that the reform of education and training is only a component in
strengthening the medicine human resources. In addition, it is necessary to conduct other
action plans with active cooperation from Ministry of Health and development partner
groups. He hoped that these innovations will be summarized in a longer-term scheme on
developing medicine human resources based on Vietnam’s future demand.
 Prof. Dr. Le Quang Cuong, Depute Minister, Ministry of Health
Prof. Dr. Le Quang Cuong highly appreciated the presence and contributing ideas from
development partners as well as international and domestic representatives in an effort to
renovate the training of medicine human resources in Vietnam.
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On behalf of Ministry of Health, Prof. Dr. Le Quang Cuong once again sent sincere
thanks to Dr. Takeshi Kasai, Chief Representative of WHO in Vietnam for his active and
effective support to Vietnam’s health sector and HPG Forum over the recent years.
He suggested that the next HPG Meetings will be built on specific topics in accordance
with actual requirements of Vietnam’s health sector. The reports from experts and
technical working groups should be consolidated to submit to Ministry’s leaders and keep
development partners timely updated. He believed that with the assistance of international
organizations, development cooperation agencies and international banks in Vietnam, the
quality of Vietnamese medicine human resources will be continuously improved and the
medical education models will be diversified to meet the need of universal health care.
The HPG meeting ended at 12:00PM on the same day.
International Cooperation Department
Director General
Tran Thi Giang Huong
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