Representatives of the Medical Services Administration under the Ministry of Health and AstraZeneca signed the second phase of the "Vietnam Healthy Lung" programme for 2021-2023 in Hanoi on November 17. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese patients with respiratory problems, especiallylung cancer, will benefit from the second phase of the "VietnamHealthy Lung" programme in 2021-23 that was signed between the healthministry’s Medical Services Administration (MSA) and AstraZeneca on November 16.
Following the success of the Vietnam Healthy Lung programme in 2017-20with the aim of improving the quality of outpatient management of asthmaand Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the programme’s phase twowill continue to improve capacity of diagnosis, quality of treatment, care andmanagement of the asthma and COPD and expand into a new field of lung cancer.
Luong Ngoc Khue, Director ofDepartment of Medical Examination and Treatment under the Ministry ofHealth, said at the event: “In the first phase during 2017-20, the VietnamHealthy Lung programme has implemented comprehensive solutions in control ofasthma and COPD in Vietnam. Therefore, maintaining and promoting theeffectiveness of these solutions more widely across the country in the nextperiod of 2021-2023 is very important to ensure patients' long-term andsustainable benefits.”
In addition, Khue said, expanding the programme into the field of lung cancerwould help patients access quality services in diagnosis, treatment and diseasemanagement as well as improve the quality of management of respiratory diseasesand lung cancer, especially amid COVID-19.
In the next three years, the programme will focus on raising public awarenessof asthma, COPD and lung cancer for increasing screening and detection rates;increasing access to quality health services in terms of examination,diagnosis, treatment and disease management.
It will also help training of health professionals and support theestablishment of centres for asthma and COPD patients and centres forstandardised clinical practice on lung cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The "For Healthy Lungs" programme is AstraZeneca's multinationalinitiative to improve the quality of outpatient management of asthma and EP innine Asian countries, in which Vietnam was the first country to implement theprogramme since 2017.
In the first phase, the programme contributed to solving the current challengesin managing asthma and COPD by contributing to the development of the criterion“Asthma and EPU management units” applied as a pilot in the Vietnam HealthyLung programme in Vietnam in the 2017-20 period.
It supported establishment and enhanced capacity for 110 asthma and COPDmanagement units, helping more than 101,364 patients access bettertreatment. More than 4,820 people at risk of respiratory disease werescreened and educational programmes on how to control asthma and COPDwere provided for more than 11,515 patients. In addition, the programme alsoorganised training to update medical knowledge for 8,200 health workers.
It is estimated that over 4.2 percent of Vietnam’s population suffers fromCOPD. It is worrying that most of them are not currently diagnosed due to alack of medical facilities, poor awareness of patients and limitations in theprofessional skills of public health, according to the health ministry.
Vietnam each year reported about 23,667 new lung cancer cases and 20,170deaths. Most people with cancer in the country visit hospitals for medicalexamination and treatment in a late stage, making treatment difficult andcreating a huge financial burden on patients./.
VNA
