Program for caring for and improving employees' health and preventing occupational disease for the 2020-2030 period in Vietnam

Program for caring for and improving employees' health and preventing occupational disease for the 2020-2030 period in Vietnam

The Program for caring for and improving employees' health and preventing occupational disease for the 2020-2030 period in Vietnam was approved in Decision 659/QD-TTg, year 2020.

The guiding perspectives of the Program for caring for and improving employees' health and preventing occupational disease for the 2020-2030 period in Vietnam are as follows:

- Protecting, caring for, and enhancing workers' health is an investment for national development; it is an obligation and responsibility of every worker, employer, the political system, and the entire society, requiring the active participation of party committees, authorities, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations, sectors, in which the health sector plays a pivotal role.

- The State plays a role in management, policy building, and completion; creates a favorable environment; mobilizes and effectively uses resources, encourages public-private partnerships, and private investment.

- Employers have the responsibility to fully implement the legal provisions on occupational safety and hygiene as required by law.

- Aiming to carry out the work of protection, care, enhancement of workers' health regularly, continuously, and comprehensively, especially women workers, elderly workers, workers without labor contracts in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, artisanal villages, etc.; integrate with primary health care management activities at the grassroots level.

- Comprehensive investment for prevention and treatment according to the motto of active disease prevention at the workplace by controlling, eliminating harmful factors in the working environment, changing awareness and behaviors of workers and employers in health protection and enhancement, developing and maintaining healthy living habits, nutrition, sanitation; early detection, prompt treatment of occupational and work-related diseases.

Program for caring for and improving employees' health and preventing occupational disease in Vietnam (Internet image)

Key solutions and tasks of the program for caring for and improving employees' health in Vietnam

According to Decision 659/QD-TTg, year 2020, key solutions and tasks include:

(1) Strengthening leadership, intersectoral coordination

- Strengthen leadership, direction, and coordination between levels, sectors from central to local levels, between relevant agencies, political organizations, social associations, professional associations, businesses, non-governmental organizations in implementing the program's objectives.

- Mobilize the participation of the entire political system, ministries, central authorities and local authorities, agencies, business community, social organizations, residential communities to achieve the program's objectives.

(2) Completing the legal policy system

- Review, adjust, supplement, and complete the legal system, policies on occupational health, labor hygiene.

- Review, amend, supplement regulations on professional standards, inspect, check and supervise the implementation of legal provisions on labor hygiene, care to enhance workers' health, prevent occupational diseases, treatment, and rehabilitation.

(3) Strengthening the system of specialized technical medical services and informatization

- Invest in, upgrade equipment, facilities and human resources for the quality assurance systems for environmental monitoring, health surveillance, screening, detecting early occupational diseases; first aid at workplaces; treatment, evaluation, rehabilitation of occupational diseases and accidents.

- Complete guidelines on technical standards; national technical regulations on labor hygiene, occupational exposure limits, medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of labor accidents, occupational diseases.

- Enhance training to improve management and professional capacity for staff suitable to the tasks according to each objective of the program; prioritize retraining for grassroots health staff, health staff at workplaces on health care services for workers.

- Implement informatization of management activities in care and enhancement of workers' health; synchronize and connect information systems from workplaces to district, provincial, and central levels.

- Strengthen grassroots health organizations to provide health care services for workers, control harmful factors at the workplace.

- Develop guidelines for implementing health care services for workers, manage harmful factors, personal health records; enhance workers' health at the grassroots level for small and medium enterprises, artisanal villages, and for workers without labor contracts.

- Implement and expand effective models of communicable and non-communicable disease prevention (cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, ...) at workplaces.

- Effectively prevent occupational diseases in some sectors and industries (occupational infectious diseases in the health sector, agriculture; noise-induced hearing loss in mechanics, machinery manufacturing; occupational asbestos diseases in the construction industry; occupational chemical poisoning in leather production, chemical, electronic component manufacturing; occupational pneumoconiosis in mining, mechanics, metallurgy, ...); minimize exposure to harmful factors at workplaces with risk.

- Assess emerging occupational hygiene factors and occupational diseases under new labor conditions; inspect and manage information on establishments using asbestos, conducting environmental health surveillance, maintain health status records, conduct periodic health examinations, annual occupational disease examinations as stipulated; update the national registry for asbestos-related diseases at cancer registration centers nationwide.

- Review and develop guidelines for the following issues: (i) health of female workers in industrial zones, export processing zones; (ii) after-hours medical care for workers and compensation policies for occupational diseases for workers; (iii) the occupational health system at all levels including production and business establishments; (iv) use of funds for occupational disease prevention work from the labor accident and occupational disease insurance fund; (v) health care for workers without labor contracts, elderly workers.

- Improve first aid capacities at workplaces, meet treatment, convalescence, rehabilitation for occupational diseases and labor accidents.

(4) On communication and social mobilization

- Establish a communication information system and strengthen the health education network from central to local levels.

- Disseminate, propagate policies, laws on care and enhancement of workers' health to all levels, sectors, organizations, and people.

- Use a diverse and effective range of media channels and forms to enhance effective access to target groups in health care and enhancement of workers' health.

(5) On resources

- Use budget resources effectively, including state budget allocations in the estimates for sectors, localities, units as per the State Budget Law; ODA, aid from international organizations to the Government of Vietnam and other legally mobilized sources.

- Ensure regular budget for information, communication, training, research, occupational disease prevention, and data collection, report progress in achieving objectives.

- Coordinate, integrate the program's resources with available resources (Health Insurance Fund, Labor Accident and Occupational Disease Insurance Fund, ...) and private investment sources.

(6) Research, monitoring, surveillance

- Promote scientific research, especially in-depth studies; encourage the broad participation of the scientific community, agencies, and organizations.

- Establish a national surveillance system to manage information on workers' health, labor accidents, occupational diseases, treatment, and rehabilitation; enhance information technology applications in managing, directing, monitoring, and reporting on occupational health and occupational diseases at all levels.

(7) International cooperation

Enhance international cooperation, mobilize financial support, technical expertise, experience in implementing workers' health care programs, occupational disease prevention from international organizations, foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations abroad.

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