Charitable medical workers must have practitioner certificates: Ministry

The Vietnamese health authorities have issued a new regulation that rules only health workers with practitioner’s certificates are eligible to take part in charitable medical examination and treatment in Vietnam

The Vietnamese health authorities have issued a new regulation that rules only health workers with practitioner’s certificates are eligible to take part in charitable medical examination and treatment in Vietnam.

The new decree will take effect on October 15 and replace the old issued in 2002. It came following the deaths of three babies from free cleft lip surgeries in August at Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital carried out by the Center for Researching and Aiding Smile Operation (OSCA), a Hanoi-based non-governmental charity.

Under the new regulation, all people who directly take part in charitable medical examination and treatment – including doctors, nurses and even persons who deliver medicines to patients –  must have practitioner’s certificates issued by the health ministry or health departments in provinces and cities.

The Ministry is authorized to grant practitioner certificates to individuals, medical worker teams in and outside Vietnam that carry out charitable surgeries in central hospitals in the country.

The departments of health in provinces and cities will grant practitioner certificates to medical workers if the surgeries take place in districts or communes.

Places where humanitarian medical examination and treatment take place must be equipped with necessary medical equipment and facilities, according to the new rule.

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