Novartis launches project to strengthen primary healthcare in Khanh Hoa

The workshop to kick off the project to strengthen primary healthcare in Khanh Hoa

The workshop, which was attended by representatives from the Khanh Hoa Department of Health (DoH) and Center of Disease Control (CDC), district health centres, commune health stations, and other local stakeholders, is considered a milestone in the signing of the MoU between Khanh Hoa DoH and Novartis towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Singvi Sandeep, CFO of Novartis, gave the opening speech at the workshop

The project of strengthening primary healthcare is a public-private partnership (PPP) project between Novartis Vietnam and Khanh Hoa DoH that will be implemented during the 13 months between November 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021. It is estimated to offer high-quality healthcare to more than 10,000 citizens focusing on adults at and above 40 years of age or under 40 with a family history of or symptoms of hypertension and hypertension uncontrolled leaving cardiovascular diseases.

Specifically, the project will organise activities to raise people's awareness about primary healthcare and having positive lifestyles. Moreover, it also focuses on promoting information exchange mechanisms between local medical stations and polyclinics in medical centers. Besides, the project will implement particular programmes strengthening local health capabilities and increasing the availability and accessibility of healthcare services at commune health stations, especially for the better prevention and management of non-communicable diseases.

Following the kick-off in Ha Tinh province in July, Khanh Hoa is the second of eight provinces in the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) project to partner with Novartis in strengthening the healthcare system in the local setting. Within the scope of cooperation, Khanh Hoa CDC will coordinate with local medical units in Ninh Hoa town to implement models and activities of universal healthcare according to three effective modules differently.

The project is conducted with three main modules

“Novartis looks forward to seeing a positive impact on the health status of the 10,000 or so eligible adults across the three blue-print commune health stations as well as Khanh Hoa health authorities planning to scale up successful interventions across the remaining 139 communes in the coming year as aligned with the MoH strategy and programmes,” said Amitabh Dube, country president, Novartis Vietnam.

Since 2018, Novartis has been working closely with Harvard Medical School to complement the MoH’s approach in strengthening healthcare and reached many medical cooperation agreements that help bring many practical benefits to public health programmes. Within this collaboration, Novartis aims to help leverage the advantage of technology and data to provide a convenient and efficient platform helping healthcare professionals access specialised information more easily. This is also a milestone for Novartis in its journey to bring new technology to the medical field in Vietnam.

In early 2020, Novartis Vietnam became the first multinational pharmaceutical company to successfully transform into a foreign-invested enterprise and fully operationalise its import activities. Through long-term commitments, Novartis is supporting the domestic healthcare system and contributing to the socioeconomic development of the country. Novartis is a leader in innovative medicines across many therapeutic areas: Oncology, Cardiovascular, Respiratory; Ophthalmology; Pain relief; Neuroscience, Dermatology and Immunology, as well as Cell and Gene therapy, among others. Novartis is also a leader in high-quality generics through its Sandoz unit, and one of the largest investors in clinical trials in Vietnam.

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