Minister of Health: Resolution 72 clears "bottlenecks" to take care of people's health

Resolution No. 72-NQ-TW of the Politburo on a number of breakthrough solutions in the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health was just issued on September 9, 2025.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan shared with the press about the implementation to put this Resolution into practice.

Clearing bottlenecks

- The Minister said that Resolution No. 72-NQ-TW of the Politburo on a number of breakthrough solutions in the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health, which was just issued on September 9, 2025, has what significance for the development of the health sector and the health of Vietnamese people?

Minister Dao Hong Lan: Over the past time, the work of protecting and taking care of people's health has always received special attention from the Party and State.

However, the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health still has limitations, inadequacies, difficulties and challenges. Faced with urgent practical requirements, the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health needs to be strongly changed in thinking, awareness and action.

The issuance of Resolution No. 72-NQ-TW by the Politburo is of special significance, continuing to demonstrate the Party's deep concern for the health of each citizen to aim at the goal of building a healthy Vietnam, where all people receive health care, live long, live well, live healthily, improve their physical fitness, raise awareness of health protection and proactively prevent diseases in the whole society.

This is a resolution of strategic, comprehensive and long-term significance, of an action nature, a "Resolution to implement the Resolution" with many policies to supplement, strengthen and concretize previous policies and guidelines, and propose "breakthrough" tasks and solutions to remove and clear "bottlenecks," "knots," difficulties and problems from practice to meet the requirements of sustainable development of the country.

6 breakthrough solutions

- As the Minister shared, this is a Resolution of innovation and action. Could you please tell us the core contents of the Resolution, especially what are the "breakthrough" tasks and solutions in the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health?

Minister Dao Hong Lan: The Resolution identifies 05 viewpoints, 05 specific target groups until 2030, vision to 2045, 06 groups of tasks, breakthrough solutions and responsibilities in organizing implementation. The Resolution is built on the principle of not replacing the Resolutions and Directives of the Party that have been issued, but only mentioning new, important issues with great influence, the main "bottlenecks" and "knots", creating breakthroughs in protecting, caring for and improving people's health to complete the set strategic goals, close to practical requirements, effective and feasible. In particular, the Resolution focuses on core viewpoints, goals, tasks and solutions of "innovative" and "breakthrough" nature.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan. (Photo: Duong Giang/VNA)

Firstly, emphasizing the importance of protecting, caring for and improving people's health as the goal, driving force and top political task holding priority position in development strategies and policies.

Second, emphasize the role of preventive medicine and primary health care. The preventive health system will be improved and modernized, with sufficient capacity to monitor, warn early, control epidemics in a timely manner, and proactively organize and implement disease prevention and control activities early, remotely, and at the grassroots level, ready to respond to public health emergencies; Improve the quality and effectiveness of primary health care...

Third, improve medical ethics, develop quality and synchronous medical human resources, meet patient satisfaction and international integration.

Fourth, promote health finance reform and effectively and sustainably develop health insurance policies to lay the foundation for "free hospitalisation" for the people.

Fifth, breakthroughs in scientific and technological development, innovation and comprehensive digital transformation in healthcare.

Sixth, breakthrough in private healthcare development, mobilizing and effectively using all resources for healthcare development: Synchronously and effectively implementing solutions in Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW, dated May 4, 2025 of the Politburo, strongly promoting the participation of the private economic sector, mobilizing social resources in people's healthcare.

- One of the important highlights of Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW is to shift the focus from “treatment” to “prevention,” taking preventive medicine and grassroots health care as the foundation, and people will have access to quality health services and comprehensive health management right at the commune-level health stations. So how can preventive medicine and grassroots health care take on this responsibility, Minister?

Minister Dao Hong Lan: To realize this policy, the Ministry of Health focuses on implementing a number of breakthrough solutions. Service quality and operational efficiency of the health system depend on three important factors: human resources, facilities, equipment and financial mechanisms.

Regarding human resources, primary health care and preventive medicine will prioritize the arrangement and mobilization of resources, have outstanding mechanisms and policies to develop human resources to ensure uniformity in quantity, quality, and structure, especially human resources in remote, disadvantaged, especially disadvantaged, border, and island areas. Commune-level health stations will be consolidated, ensuring human resource structure, sufficient number of doctors according to functions and tasks; maintaining the team of medical staff in villages, residential groups, village midwives, and population collaborators according to functions and tasks.

In the period of 2025-2030, each year, localities will rotate, transfer, and mobilize at least 1,000 doctors to work for a limited time at commune-level health stations; supplement permanent doctors at commune-level health stations, by 2027 there will be at least 4-5 doctors, by 2030 there will be enough doctors according to functions and tasks. Training will receive special attention, the Ministry of Health will resolutely and effectively implement the Project on training and fostering doctors to create a source for commune-level health stations, especially for communes in remote, isolated, disadvantaged, border, and island areas.

Regarding facilities, basic medicine and medical equipment will be guaranteed to meet requirements and tasks, especially in remote, disadvantaged, border and island areas.

Regarding the operating mechanism, financial mechanism, functions, tasks, and organizational structure of commune-level health stations, they are organized according to the model of public service units, ensuring the provision of basic and essential services on disease prevention, primary health care, medical examination and treatment, and social care services.

It can be said that all these solutions are aimed at realizing the spirit of “innovation, creativity, acceleration, breakthrough” as set out in the Resolution, so that every Vietnamese person can receive comprehensive health care and protection, from prevention to treatment. Commune health stations will have the conditions to improve their professional capacity and service quality, attracting and creating trust among the people.

Free hospitalisation at basic level

- The “free hospital fees” policy is a breakthrough content of the Resolution that is receiving a lot of attention from the people. Can the Minister tell us what benefits the people will enjoy and how this policy will be implemented to ensure fairness and efficiency?

Minister Dao Hong Lan: Exempting basic hospital fees for all people through health insurance by 2030 is a very humane policy, demonstrating the superiority of our regime, having profound social security significance, pleasing the people, helping to detect diseases early, reducing medical costs, clearly demonstrating the view that people are the central subject, given the highest priority in building and implementing policies to strengthen protection, care and improve health.

The Ministry of Health is urgently developing an implementation project. This policy must still be based on the pillar of health insurance, and must be implemented on a roadmap. The State and the fund will pay for basic and essential medical expenses, minimizing the financial burden on people - first of all for social policy beneficiaries, the disadvantaged, low-income people and some other priority groups. For medical services on demand, exceeding the basic level, patients still have to pay a part to raise awareness of using services reasonably and saving costs.

The policy of free hospital fees must be closely linked to universal health insurance coverage, everyone participates in health insurance to share risks, the well-off take care of the poor, the healthy help the weak; along with support from the state budget so that patients do not have to pay extra costs when they are unfortunately sick.

Regarding the scope of benefits, people are entitled to periodic health check-ups or free screening at least once a year and to establish an electronic health record, managing diseases according to the life cycle, from the fetus to old age, this will be implemented from 2026. By 2030, people will be exempted from basic medical examination and treatment costs within the scope of health insurance benefits according to the roadmap.

Accordingly, from 2026, gradually increase the rate, payment level, and expenditure for disease prevention, diagnosis, and early treatment of a number of diseases and priority subjects according to the roadmap from the Health Insurance Fund to reduce the financial burden on patients, in accordance with the increase in health insurance contributions as prescribed by law from 2027. The State budget and the Health Insurance Fund will pay for a number of disease prevention services, chronic disease management, periodic health check-ups and screening examinations according to professional requirements at the initial and basic medical examination and treatment levels according to an appropriate roadmap to prevent diseases, reduce morbidity and mortality rates, and save on late-stage treatment costs for people.

- Minister, please tell us how the Health Sector will approach and implement so that the goals of Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW become reality in people's lives?

Minister Dao Hong Lan: With a spirit of strong innovation in both thinking and action in all stages of leadership, direction and implementation, the entire health sector will synchronously deploy tasks and solutions to quickly put the Resolution into life, so that people can soon enjoy social security policies.

The entire health sector will thoroughly grasp and fully recognize the particularly important role of protecting, caring for and improving people's health; strongly innovate the health sector's management thinking, create a transparent and accountable management environment associated with administrative procedure reform, decentralization and thorough delegation of power.

We believe that, with common determination, goals such as increasing life expectancy, reducing the burden of medical costs, expanding universal health insurance, etc. will not only be numbers on resolutions, but will gradually appear in daily life, so that people can live longer, healthier and happier lives.

- Thank you very much, Minister!. /.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/bo-truong-y-te-nghi-quyet-72-khoi-thong-cac-diem-nghen-de-cham-soc-suc-khoe-nhan-dan-post1062064.vnp