Healthcare network

Before the 19th century, identified as Oriental traditional medicine, Vietnam’s medicine used mainly herbs. At the end of the 19th century, as Vietnam became a colony of the French, Western medicine was introduced to Vietnam.

At that time, clinics could only be found in big cities, while in rural areas, traditional medicine remained the key way of treatment.

When the Democratic Republic of Vietnam came into beings in September 1945, a healthcare system started to be built. The Medical University was established right at the Viet Bac war zone in 1949. Even during that early stage, the Medical University, Research Institute and hospitals had managed to produce some basic medications such as Penicillin and malaria medicine. After the reunification in April 1975, the healthcare sector started to develop rapidly with renowned doctors and numerous achievements that have earned international recognition.

At present, the public system plays the leading role in healthcare and is divided into 3 levels: Central, provincial and local (including district, commune and hamlet).

In addition to the public healthcare system, Vietnam has also developed a private healthcare network. There are now 30,000 private clinics and 36 private hospitals with 2,538 beds (equals to 2% of the hospital beds nationwide) of which there are 4 foreign-invested hospitals.

Copyright: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Created by admin
Last modified 05-01-2007

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Healthcare network