#002: Five national consultants to revise and update the National Guidelines on Reproductive Healthcare Services focusing on Safe motherhood

Background

Vietnam has made great strides in improving the quality and diversifying types of maternal and child health care (MCH), reproductive health, meeting the needs of people, lowering maternal and child health mortality rates. 

In the process of implementing maternal health and reproductive health services, standardization of professional activities is an issue that needs special attention to improve service quality and minimize possible errors. The "National Guidelines on Reproductive Health Services" was issued by the Ministry of Health for the first time in 2002, updated for the first time in 2009 and the second time in 2016, including maternal and child health care. Children and reproductive health have many developments, limit errors and meet most of the above important requirements.

The 2016 National Guidelines on Reproductive Health Services includes 10 parts based on 10 priority content related to reproductive health: General guidelines, Safe motherhood, Gynaecology, New-born care, Family planning, Reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases, Adolescent reproductive health, Safe abortion, Andrology, and other contents of reproductive health. The content in this document only provides basic steps and general principles that need to be followed to help service providers avoid missing steps during implementation and possible errors. In particular, each topic of the document focuses on instructions for treatment at each level based on the regulations of the Ministry of Health on technical tasks in the field of reproductive health care at medical facilities. Specific instructions for each technical operation according to the National Guidelines are mentioned specifically in the training materials.

National guidelines on reproductive health care services are implemented at all health care levels, especially grassroots health care levels, including both public and private health care, which is the legal basis for the implementation of reproductive health care services, and is a guidebook for health workers in the process of providing services and is also a basis for developing training materials for health workers, supervision, evaluation of the quality of reproductive health care services at medical facilities.

However, after 7 years since the National Guidelines were supplemented and revised for the second time, many scientific and technical advances in the field of maternal and child health care have been applied and many regulations in the National Guidelines are no longer appropriate to reality and need to be supplemented and amended. The 2023 Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, which will takes effect from January 1, 2024, also introduces new regulations on decentralization of medical examination and treatment. Therefore, the Department of Maternal and Child Health advocates reviewing, supplementing and updating the National Guidelines on Reproductive Health Services to replace the 2016 Guidelines. The purpose of this update and revision is to:

- Review and update guidelines based on new recommendations from the World Health Organization on the basis of good domestic practices, such as early essential newborn care, and postpartum haemorrhage treatment.

- Integrate and connect health services to provide comprehensive services to people, minimize missed diagnoses and improve the quality of care, for example: integrating the services regarding prevention of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases in pregnant women and children, preventing and screening for reproductive cancers, treating sick children with an integrated perspective, and nutrition.

- Additional topics on obstetric pathology such as infectious diseases and pregnancy, fetus clinging to old surgical scars, postpartum embolism, etc. will be included in the guidelines.

- Additional topics on management and provision of maternal and child health and reproductive health services such as safe hospital transfer, red alert, professional consultation, Robson classification, maternal and child health management tools, periodic health checks for children by age, and adolescent-friendly reproductive health services will be included in the guidelines.

- The guidelines will also add trending problems in society, with a huge need for reproductive health care, requires professional guidance specific for all levels of care, including primary care, in the provision of services such as: mental health, reproductive health for LGBT and some disadvantaged/vulnerable people such as people with disabilities.

- Content that has been mentioned in other documents of the Ministry of Health such as regulations on essential drugs, equipment, etc. will be amended or removed depending on the specific details.

The WHO Representative Office in Vietnam is seeking 05 national consultants to update and amend topics (and develop new ones if any) under the Safe Motherhood Section of the National Guidelines on Reproductive Health Services. Contracts will be issued to the successful candidates through the tender process according to these terms of reference.

Planned Timelines (subject to confirmation):  

Start date:  01/04/2024

End date: 01/10/2024

Specific requirement

- Qualifications required:     

A post-graduate degree in medicine, specialized in obstetrics and gynecology

- Experience required:

 A minimum of five to ten years of relevant work experience including obstetrics and gynecology, with preference given to clinical experience in obstetrics and gynecology.

- Skills / Technical skills and knowledge:

Have experience developing professional guidelines in maternal and child health areas.

- Language requirements:

Well written and spoken in Vietnamese and English

- Other required:

Proficient in using office computer software.

Competencies

• Communication
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Ability to demonstrate gender equality and cultural appropriateness within the office and among partners.
• Producing results

Place of assignment

Viet Nam.

Medical clearance 

The selected STCs will be expected to provide a medical certificate of fitness for work.

Travel

No travel outside the country is required.

Those who are interested can submit your most updated CV and application letter indicating post title and vacancy notice # on or before 19 March 2024 and should be addressed to: 

Administrative Officer 

World Health Organization 

UN Building, 304 Kim Ma Street, 

Hanoi, Viet Nam 

OR wpvnmapplicants@who.int 

For further information on this TOR, please contact: wpvnmhle@who.int