Family Medicines: a Strategic Weakness in Healthcare Structure in Vietnam & Some Proposed Solutions and Recommendations

FAMILY MEDICINES
A STRATEGIC WEAKNESS IN HEALTHCARE STRUCTURE IN VIETNAM & SOME PROPOSED SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONTENT 1. Introduction 2. Family medicine and its roles in global healthcare system 3. Family medicine situation in Vietnam 4. Impacts of Family Medicine weakness in Healthcare system & Family physician insufficiency in Vietnam 5. Some proposed solutions & recommendations to improve Family medicine 6. Conclusion.

1. Introduction
Recently the trends of urbanization and fast population increase expose several problems to healthcare system in Vietnam like shortage of healthcare manpower, low quality of care, unreasonable distribution of healthcare manpower in different geographic areas, particularly the serious shortage of physicians in Mekong Delta and North-west highland areas as specialists tend to locate their practices in urban medical centers where they could have access to advanced technology, supportive services and consultations from other specialists while rural areas are underserved and patient care becomes highly technocratic, fragmented and episodic. Furthermore, the shortage of physicians in major cities results in a seriously permanent overload at Central level and some specialty hospitals like Oncology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology ..etc.. In sustainable issues, deficit of Family medicine - a basic foundation of modern healthcare in the world, is identified as one of main causes of such problems in Vietnam healthcare system.
The purpose of this Essay is to provide a theoretical discussion and analysis about the Family medicine weakness in Healthcare system and Family physician insufficiency in Vietnam to better understand about their impacts to the healthcare system at present and some proposed solutions and recommendations to improve these deficits.
2. Family Medicine and its roles in global healthcare system.
In contemporary medicine, Family medicine remains the foundation

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