Private health care sector

A surgery conducted at the Vinmec Times City General Hospital, a private hospital in Hanoi (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Private investment is forecast to keep flowing into the healthcare sector in the time ahead with the appearance of many new drivers, according to the Dau tu (Vietnam Investment Review) newspaper. Nipro Pharma Vietnam , invested in by the Nipro Pharma Corporation - one of Japan’s leading pharmaceutical companies - is completing necessary procedures to add 270 million USD to its investment in a factory at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the Japan External Trade Organisation ( JETRO ), a large number of Japanese businesses are seeking the chance to tap into Vietnam’s healthcare market given its substantial potential. The sector has attracted new investment inflows recently, especially last year, with a number of new projects from both domestic and foreign companies. In late 2020, a group of investors led by the Singaporean Government’s GIC sovereign wealth fund poured more than 203 million USD into Vingroup’s VMC, which develops and operates the Vinmec hospital system. VinaCapital’s Vietnam Opportunity Fund, meanwhile, invested 26.7 million USD in the Thu Cuc International General Hospital, while the UK’s Real Capital London debuted the Hong Anh (UK Vietnam) Medical Campus in HCM City, worth about 156 million USD. Many projects funded by domestic investors were also licensed or became operational last year, such as the TV.Pharm Hi-tech Pharmaceutical Complex, Van Phuc - Sai Gon Hospital, and Hoan My Western Hospital. Such moves show that hospital investment is increasingly attractive to investors due to growing middle class demand for high-quality healthcare, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, multinational pharmaceutical groups such as Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, GSK, and AstraZeneca are promoting “social business” via new programmes. In late January, AstraZeneca worked with the Ministry of …

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Oxfam distributing hygiene kits to people in Yemen amid the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Wael Algadi Oxfam today called for a package of nearly $160 billion in immediate debt cancellation and aid to fund a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response and help prevent millions of deaths as a result of the coronavirus.The five-point plan of this Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response would enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the disease and build up the capacity of health systems to care for those affected. The pandemic has caused widespread suffering in rich countries, overwhelming some of the best healthcare systems in the world. However, with the disease now spreading to many poor countries where high levels of poverty and inequality threaten to accelerate the disease, the public health challenges are even greater. Nearly three billion people across the developing world do not have access to clean water, while millions more do not have access to adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible. As women make up 70 per cent of health workers and carry out most unpaid care work, it will hit them the hardest. Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim executive director, said that in Mali there are three ventilators per million people. In Zambia, there is one doctor for 10,000 people. “We know from Oxfam’s experience of fighting Ebola that with rapid action, this disease can be stalled and its catastrophic impact stopped. But we must act now and, on a scale never seen before,” he said. “Without urgent, ambitious, and historic action, we could easily see the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II.” The Imperial College London estimates that in the absence of intervention, the coronavirus could have led to 40 million deaths in the coming year. Oxfam calculates that doubling the health spending of the 85 poorest countries, home to nearly half of the world’s …

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Official data showed that the expenditure on the country's health system increased by 11.3 percent in January 2021 compared to the same period last year, with most of it being paid for professionals and medical equipment. The Ministry of Health has reported having contracted 981 hospital beds by the end of January this year, with 745 beds from the private and social sectors and 236 from the Armed Forces. The number of ventilators for the treatment of COVID-19 patients has almost doubled, now totaling 2,216 pieces of equipment available through the health system. Beds in intensive care units more than tripled, rising from 431 beds in January 2020 to 1,411 on Feb. 10 this year. According to the latest data from the Directorate-General for Health, Portugal currently has 861,922 people vaccinated against the coronavirus: 596,812 with the first dose and 265,110 with the second dose. Portugal's confirmed COVID-19 cases stood now at 804,562. As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines. Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 23. …

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