A ceremony was organized at Pullman Hotel in Hanoi for the Ministry of Health (along with the Department of Health of Ha Tinh Province) and the Novartis Group to sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation to raise primary healthcare. The primary goal is to achieve universal health coverage and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Novartis is a diversified global pharmaceutical group. The content of the memorandum covers the areas of supporting activities with the participation of the community in practicing healthy lifestyles, improving knowledge on health protection and disease management with effective referral mechanisms, accessing treatment of common non-communicable diseases, and supporting in monitoring as well as evaluating intervention effectiveness.

This is a pioneering cooperation activity under the coordination framework of the newly established Working Group about Primary Healthcare (Decision No. 5088 / QD-BYT dated October 29, 2019) by the Ministry of Health, as a testament to public-private collaboration in this area.

The Working Group for Primary Healthcare Transformation will consist of the Vietnamese government and three other founding members, namely World Economic Forum(WEF), Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, and Novartis to develop an innovative public-private partnership which will help deliver on the Ministry of Health’s objectives by strengthening existing primary care demonstration projects in 30 provinces in Vietnam. Learning from these projects will be applied to scale up the model nationwide. The Working Group will build an action plan that includes agreed-upon objectives, milestones, and an overall strategy.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said: “I appreciate the efforts of the Department of Planning and Finance, relevant departments of the Ministry of Health, and international partners who have been involved in the very beginning of the Working Group in nearly a year, such as: Harvard Medical School, World Economic Forum, Novartis and initial activities that the group has implemented such as the Collaborative Dialogue Conference on PHC held on May 16, 2019.

“I hope that the Working Group's activities will attract more attention and active participation of domestic and foreign partners, and create synergy and diffusion to strengthen the health system and PHC in Vietnam."

“Novartis is committed to strengthening the healthcare system from primary healthcare to areas of specialty care,” commented Mr. Roeland Roelofs, country president at Novartis Vietnam.

“We have a strong experience from more than six years of serving rural populations through our Social Business Program 'Cùng Sống Khoẻ,' and more than three years of serving urban populations in our Communities for Healthy Hearts Program. In our view, innovation in healthcare delivery is as important as providing access to innovative medicines.

“I’ve been impressed by the Vietnamese government not only in its progress in healthcare to date, but also by its approach to addressing remaining challenges in new ways.

"I believe their approach is unique and may, and perhaps even should over time, be followed by other governments.”

As part of this project, the Ministry of Health will focus on connecting commune health stations of district-level and provincial hospitals to health centers and higher level hospitals, helping to improve the connection of the health system and to ensure the benefits of people nationwide.

Patients will be transferred from higher to lower levels. As the cost of drugs is subsidized, it can cover the entire population. This policy will be effective because of the good impact created when the people are cared for early and they are able to prevent diseases more thoroughly.

Therefore, Novartis can be considered a pioneer in implementing the works issued by the Ministry of Health. Novartis Vietnam is the first prestigious partner assigned by the Ministry of Health to carry out one of the necessary functions for this project to be implemented, committing to continue supporting the Annual Dialogue on PHC and mobilizing more partners to join the Technical Working Group.

Novartis has provided high quality generic drugs for similar health systems, pledging to consider the possibilities of implementing this program in Vietnam and promising to make a major contribution in utilizing its technology roles in primary health care deployment for national health coverage.

To deploy effective cooperation, Novartis will mobilize experts and resources from Novartis organizations, both domestic and abroad, supporting a large resource with strengths and potential both in economic and technological terms.

With this expectation, Novartis Co., Ltd. will be the first to fulfill four covenants with the Ministry of Health by signing the MoU with a grant of at least US$475,000, and possibly up to $675,000, promising to improve the healthcare situation of Vietnam right from the lower levels to address the overcrowding of higher-level hospitals as well as to support people's awareness and health.