Health in every community: caring for people with noncommunicable diseases in Viet Nam

On an intensely hot day in early 2024, Doan Thi Hien, 77, walked into Nhi Binh commune health station in Ho Chi Minh City, not far from where she lived.

Following her hypertension diagnosis nearly two decades ago, Ms Hien had previously needed to ask her son or daughter-in-law for help to travel more than 10 kilometres to the Hoc Mon district health centre.

But now Ms Hien, for the first time, can get a health check-up and pick up her medicines in her own neighbourhood.

“At times, a trip to the district health centre would take me almost a day just to get a checkup, consultation, and medicines, but now it only takes a short while here and the station is just half a kilometer away from my home. Due to my age, being able to get my medicines and health checkup here at the commune health station is greatly appreciated,” said Ms Hien.

Since late 2022, a project supported by WHO, through the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Partnership, and a nongovernmental organisation (NGO), the Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL), is bringing essential primary health care (PHC) closer to Ms Hien and millions of people living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Ho Chi Minh City.  

The work focuses on improving the quality of care at PHC for NCDs across the city and has learnt lessons from an earlier project that took place across nearly all provinces in Viet Nam.

WHO, through the UHC Partnership and RTSL, supported the Ministry of Health to develop and implement an NCD management model from 2016-2022. This included simple protocols, and an online reporting system to monitor the progress of individuals aggregating data from the community to national levels.

The problem of NCDs

Around the world, NCDs including cancer, chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, kill 41 million people each year, equivalent to almost three out of every four deaths globally. In Viet Nam, NCDs are responsible for 80% of deaths. The country has made great improvements in mother and child health and in reducing infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, but NCDs are a growing and significant health challenge, with many people living with undiagnosed conditions. An estimated 75% of people with hypertension or diabetes are not being treated. 

The nearest health care is often the best health care

Early detection and timely treatment are the keys to successfully managing NCDs. However, many people living with NCDs may not show any symptoms until the disease has substantially progressed. One way to help address this challenge is proactive community-based testing and long-term treatment. 

Ho Chi Minh City is Viet Nam’s largest city with more than 9 million inhabitants (before merging with two other provinces in July 2025). Having strong primary healthcare facilities near people's homes enables healthcare workers to provide more frequent and timely support. They can offer advice on lifestyle factors such as smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption and diet, which can ultimately help to prevent, delay or manage NCDs.

“Commune health stations serve as the bridge between community members and the health system. We know our patients very well, not only their health conditions but also on a personal level. We know their families and understand exactly what triggers each patient’s condition, such as their drinking, smoking or sleeping habits,” said Dr Pham Van Nghia from the Nhi Binh commune health station.

Reaching people in the community

Since late 2022, 43 out of 310 commune health stations and 10 of 22 district health centres benefited from taking part in the project. In 2024, the model began to be rolled out to the remaining commune and district health care facilities in Ho Chi Minh City, before being scaled up to the entire country. By June 2025, the project had reached about 180 of 273 commune health stations (commune health stations were merged to reduce the number from 310 to 273) in 11 of 22 districts of HCMC.

Between February 2023 and January 2024, the number of hypertension patients visiting commune health stations nearly doubled, and the number of diabetes patients increased nearly 4 times. With focus on better grassroots care, 20% more patients had controlled blood pressure, and 56% more patients had controlled blood glucose. There has also been improvement in essential medicine supply, with more commune health stations having enough supply of the three types of hypertension and two types of diabetic medicines.

“It is important to create a stronger and more integrated primary health care system to help meet essential health needs for all. We are very proud to collaborate with the Ministry of Health, local health authorities and health partners, with the support of Resolve to Save Lives and the UHC Partnership, to strengthen hypertension and diabetes management in primary health care, so that people can be screened and treated for their conditions in a timely way,” said Dr Angela Pratt, WHO Representative in Viet Nam.

 

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The UHC Partnership operates in over 125 countries, representing over 3 billion people. It is supported and funded by Belgium, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Japan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and WHO.