The workshop aimed to review ten years of implementing adirection of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam CentralCommittee on the development of the traditional Vietnamese medicinesector.
According to statistics revealed at the workshop, the numberof beds at traditional medicine hospitals nationwide has doubled since 2008.
As of 2017, the number of communal clinics using traditionalmedicine had increased by nearly 24 percent compared to 2008.
More than 70 percent of communes using traditional medicinein the country have health insurance coverage.
Traditional medicine health care services in the privatesector are reported to have multiple forms with a growing number of servicessuch as private hospitals, clinics, traditional medicine business facilitiesand medicinal material wholesale facilities.
There is a growing trend to combine Vietnamese traditionalmedicine with Western medicine.
Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that over the yearssince the direction took effect in 2008, the ministry had enforced 46 legaldocuments related to the management of traditional medicine.
She hailed the sector for making progress including theplanting and growing of medicinal materials and the control of fake materials.
“Quality of treatment methods using traditional Vietnamesemedicine combined with modern one has been paid more attention. The health caresystem using traditional medicine has also improved from central to locallevels,” she said.
A legal system related to Vietnamese traditional medicinehas been applied in private and public sectors.
However, participants agreed that investment to developtraditional Vietnamese medicine has not been in tandem with the important roleof traditional medicine in health care. Meanwhile, current regulations haveloopholes that hinder traditional medicine development.
Many officials are not fully aware of traditional medicine’srole in treatment and disease prevention, participants said.-VNS/VNA