The heart of a People's Physician

The journey of sustainable volunteering

Nearly 8 years have passed, but Mr. Vo Qui's family (Binh Tri village, Ninh Binh commune, Ninh Hoa town) still keeps a photo of the new, spacious house on its inauguration day next to the old, low house with a sloping roof and earthen walls... as a reminder of the kindness of Dr. Truong Tan Minh - Chairman of the Association for the Protection of the Disabled, Poor Patients and Children's Rights of the province. "The new house is spacious, with 3 rooms for my parents, my wife and I and our 2 sons. On the inauguration day, the whole family stood looking at the house and still felt like they were dreaming. If it weren't for Dr. Minh, the house would still be just a dream for my family" - Mr. Qui confided.

Doctor Truong Tan Minh received the title of People's Physician in 2017.

Doctor Truong Tan Minh recalled that in 2017, the Association for the Support of the Disabled, Poor Patients and Children's Rights of the province organized a gift-giving ceremony for poor and studious students in Ninh Binh commune. When he arrived at Mr. Qui's house, he was shocked to see a house with rickety walls, having to use props around it, the roof was leaking in many places, and tarpaulins were everywhere. Inside the house, an old woman over 70 years old had a stroke and a broken femur, an old man over 80 years old was sick and both were lying on the ground... "When I returned, I was awake all night and then decided to share Mr. Qui's family situation on my personal Facebook page. Surprisingly, 3 days later, I received more than 100 million VND from benefactors to support the construction of a house for my family. I was so happy that I quickly called Mr. Qui to inform him, but the whole family did not believe it..." - Doctor Minh recounted, his eyes sparkling with joy. Mr. Qui added: “The total value of the supported house was 128 million VND. At that time, my family was a near-poor household, my husband and I worked for hire, our 2 children were in high school, having enough to eat was already lucky, how could we dare to think about building a house. A few days after the house was inaugurated, storm No. 12 hit. In the morning, looking at the old house that had been swept away by the storm, I shuddered, imagining if the whole family was still living in there…”.

Doctor Truong Tan Minh presented a new house to Mr. Vo Qui's family.

After retiring in 2010, Dr. Truong Tan Minh joined the Association for the Protection of the Disabled, Poor Patients and Children's Rights of the province as Vice President of the Association, then became President of the Association and continued his volunteer activities. He traveled to many places to connect and mobilize support for the Association's activities; proactively coordinated and organized many charity fundraising programs. From joining the Association until the end of 2024, he and its members have connected and helped tens of thousands of people. The Association mobilized more than 124 billion VND to support medical equipment for a number of hospitals; contributed to the treatment of cataracts, orthopedic injuries, cleft palate, cleft lip for more than 1,000 patients in difficult circumstances; provided nearly 1 million free meals for poor patients; built 16 new houses (100 million VND/house); donated 1,500 wheelchairs and bicycles to the disabled and poor students, and gave more than 1,000 scholarships to students, more than 10,000 gifts to the association's sponsors, and supported the livelihoods of nearly 1,000 people... In 2024 alone, from a mobilized fund of more than 13.4 billion VND, the association helped more than 100,000 disabled people, poor patients and children in difficult circumstances build houses, support livelihoods, buy health insurance, improve meals, buy medical equipment...

Contribute to improving Khanh Hoa health system

Before becoming Chairman of the Association for the Support of the Disabled, Poor Patients and Children's Rights of the province, in his position as leader of the Department of Health, Dr. Truong Tan Minh made important contributions to the construction and development of the Khanh Hoa health system.

In 1982, after graduating from university, he was assigned to the Dermatology Hospital as the Head of the Provincial Leprosy Prevention and Control Team. At that time, leprosy was one of the "four incurable diseases" so everyone was afraid; patients even hid their illness for fear of discrimination. Witnessing the suffering and pain of leprosy patients, he and the whole team did not hesitate to cycle to each village to examine each person, for a whole month. "At that time, we were not afraid of difficulties or hardships, we just wanted to go faster, arrive earlier so that patients could receive timely treatment and regain their confidence" - Dr. Minh shared. Doctor Tran Thi Kim Thanh, a member of the provincial leprosy prevention team at that time, said: “We were chased out of our homes many times by the people, because we were afraid that if we discovered our illness, our neighbors would shun us. Understanding that, Doctor Minh both encouraged us and thought of ways to propagate so that people would understand correctly and not discriminate against or shun leprosy patients. Once, when a theater troupe came to the village to perform, the doctor arrived early and asked for 30 minutes before the show to go up and propagate...” Thanks to that dedication, many leprosy patients were cured.

Doctor Truong Tan Minh gives a gift to a patient in Ninh Hoa town.

In 1990, Dr. Truong Tan Minh was appointed Director of the Dermatology Hospital. After that, he went to study for a master's degree in health management in Thailand and was appointed Deputy Director, then Director of the Department of Health in 1998 and successfully defended his doctoral thesis in medicine in 2001. In 2004, when visiting a commune health station, he saw the degraded facilities and wondered how to rebuild the station to make it more spacious, because the health station was the closest place to the people and provided emergency care to the people the fastest. He and the leaders of the Department of Health gradually proposed to invest in modern facilities, equipment and training of human resources for the health sector. He personally mobilized all relationships to sponsor the reconstruction of a total of 69 commune-level health stations and supported training and education for more than 100 doctors in preventive medicine; the total mobilization cost was about 4.6 million USD. With the advice of the Department of Health, the remaining medical stations were also invested in by the province to build new ones and equip them with many devices such as: ultrasound machines, biochemical tests, dental work... "In the period 2004 - 2006, Khanh Hoa was assessed by the Ministry of Health to have the most modern medical stations in the country", said Dr. Truong Tan Minh.

After completing the commune level, he mobilized the construction of district level hospitals, repaired some provincial level hospitals, mobilized investment in modern medical equipment; invited medical experts from Ho Chi Minh City to transfer technology...

Keep connecting, sharing

Explaining his choice to treat and support the disadvantaged, Dr. Minh said that when he was young, he admired the mobile clinic car that came to treat villagers and dreamed of becoming a doctor. But at that time, life in his hometown Phu Tho village (Ninh Diem commune, Ninh Hoa district) was very difficult. When he was 2 years old, his father joined the army and died. His mother remarried, and he lived with his grandparents. While in secondary school, he had to drop out of school for 4 years to help his family herd cows. But he still dreamed of becoming a doctor. He asked his family to let him go to tailoring school to support himself and continued studying at night. In 1972, he went to Saigon to work as a tailor to earn a living and continue his dream. In 1975, he passed the entrance exam to Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, starting his journey to become a doctor specializing in internal medicine - pediatrics - infectious diseases.

We said goodbye to the 75-year-old doctor when he received a phone call from a benefactor asking him to deliver gifts to patients at the Provincial General Hospital. He said simply: “My life has had many difficulties, but many people have helped me realize my dreams. Therefore, I must do my best to help others to repay their kindness.” All of his friends know that the stroke has left him with dozens of stents, but that does not seem to stop his warm heart from urging his legs to continue reaching out to the community.

In 2009, Dr. Truong Tan Minh was awarded the title of Meritorious Physician by the President. In 2017, he was honored to be awarded the title of People's Physician. In addition to his professional and volunteer activities, he also writes poetry and music. To date, he has composed more than 100 musical works; published 2 music collections ( Truong Tan Minh's love songs , released in 2019; Words of a loving heart , released in 2024).

NGUYEN VU - CAT DAN

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/phong-su/202504/tam-long-cua-nguoi-thay-thuoc-nhan-dan-32d76d4/