The United Kingdom is committed to helping turn Ho Chi Minh City into a regional healthcare innovation hub, heard a meeting between UK Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Emily Hamblin and officials from the municipal Department of Health on Wednesday.

The hub is expected to spur the city’s medical training quality and bring healthcare workforces and training facilities to the world-class standard.

A diplomatic delegation of the UK led by Hamblin held talks with the municipal department leaders to announce its plan to support Ho Chi Minh City to become such a regional healthcare innovation hub.

Hamblin praised the city for its orientation toward improving healthcare and building an ASEAN medical center to serve its people and foreigners. 

The Center of South Asian Studies under the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, in collaboration with the UK Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City, has funded the municipal Department of Health’s studies on enhancing healthcare training quality and fostering public medical examination.

With an aid package worth 75,000 pounds (US$90,600), KPMG Vietnam and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) will help the city’s health agency achieve its goals and organize training courses in the UK over the next six months.

The local health authorities will enhance the human resource quality by international standards, build three high-tech medical zones, improve specialized treatment techniques for different diseases, strengthen quality healthcare services, develop medical tourism forms, and form a healthcare innovation center, among other tasks, Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper cited the health department.

“When we celebrate 50 years of the Vietnam-UK friendship, the health sector will be a main pillar of the ties,” Hamblin said.

“I am glad to see the presence of the UK in Vietnam’s health industry, which has much potential for future growth.

“I am so proud of the partnership between the UK government and Ho Chi Minh City in health."

“We are pleased to learn many things about health from the UK,” said Tang Chi Thuong, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health.

Apart from the support for building the regional healthcare innovation center in Ho Chi Minh City, several British firms and organizations have implemented various medical projects in the city.

They include a program to monitor infectious diseases conducted by OUCRU and the municipal Center for Disease Control as well as the health development and research center project run by AstraZeneca Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City and Liverpool are working to deepen their partnership in health.

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