Now, as provincial doctors are being trained to perform more difficult operations, this burden has begun to be lifted. Duong Thi Binh suffers from a heart condition. After 2 expensive interventions, she could not afford her 3rd treatment in Hanoi due to her finances. But all now she has been able to get treatment in Nghe An Province.
"The doctors here are very kind and caring. They have made my health better so I can go back to work", said Duong Thi Binh, a patient in Nghe An Province. Binh is one of the 22 cases with serious heart condition that have been treated in Nghe An Province thanks to joint efforts by doctors at Hanoi Heart Hospital and Nghe An General Hospital. They have successfully performed heart valve replacements and coronary artery operations to help poor patients.
"Mastering the Coronary Surgery technique has helped the patients in Nghe An as well as other provinces a lot. Before, we couldn’t do this surgery. The patients who had heart attacks or required other heart surgery had to be transferred to Hanoi", said Dr. Pham Hoang Phuong, Head of Cardiology Division, Nghe An General Hospital. The doctors in Nghe An can now perform these difficult operations. They have performed over 200 successful open heart operations in the last 3 years and 2,500 heart intervention over the last 8 years.
"The goal is to train provincial hospital doctors so they can perform complicated surgery themselves. We think our colleagues in Nghe An have done well. After being trained, they have managed to perform these operations. That is very rewarding to us", said Prof. Pham Gia Khai, Former President of Vietnam National Heart Association.
Through training programme for local doctors, thousands of poor people now have access to much better health care and they don’t have to worry about travelling to big cities for treatment anymore.
