VN012- Coordinator to support the Viet Nam National Medical Council (NMC) and implementation of the Council’s activities

1. Background:

Over the past two decades Viet Nam has had a significant expansion in its health professional training institutions and numbers of graduates. The number of universities training doctors in Viet Nam has roughly doubled since 1997 and the number of new doctors graduating yearly has increased almost three-fold since 2006. Viet Nam faces the challenge of improving the quality of the health workforce; encouraging innovation in the health education sector and increasing regional and international integration of its health workforce.

The Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030, which was adopted by the sixty-ninth World Health Assembly in May 2016, set the four strategic objectives to ensure universal access to health workforce by 2030. Establishing regulatory mechanisms, such as licensing of health professionals and accreditation of health professional training programmes, and alignment of international standards for health professional education are key interventions for improving the quality of human resources for health in line with the Global Strategy. Well-trained health professionals, including medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are critical to delivering quality health care. Strengthening the health workforce is needed for Viet Nam to implement its grassroots healthcare and other health sector reforms.

In July 2020 the Viet Nam government established the National Medical Council (NMC) with PM Decision (No 956-QD-TTg). The establishment of the Council is in line with the Party Resolution 20 (No 20/2017–NQ/TW) on the protection, care and improvement of people’s health in the new situation which highlighted health professional education reform as one of the priorities for the country. The resolution includes establishing an NMC to administer national licensing examinations and grant practice certificates according to international standards. The NMC will have two main functions: 1) setting competency standards for health professional education and 2) preparing the conditions for the assessment of health professionals. In addition, the Ministry of Health has drafted the revised Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (LET), which covers health workforce regulation and will be reviewed by the National Assembly in 2021.

Furthermore, in February 2021, the National Medical Council requested the WHO Representative Office in Viet Nam to provide continued support in the early stage of the establishment of the NMC.