Building capacity to use evidence for UHC in Vietnam

With thanks to Waranya Rattanavipapong, HITAP

Better policymaking for universal health coverage (UHC) requires different actors in the health system to have the right capacities to generate and use evidence. Led by HITAP, in Vietnam iDSI has been supporting the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI), a technical unit under the Ministry of Health, to build capacity for generating policy-relevant health economic evidence. Through 2016 we have supported HSPI to provide advice to Ministry of Health on reviewing its Basic Health Services Package, identifying high-cost interventions that are inappropriate or poor value for money among the 17,000 drugs and services currently reimbursed by Vietnam Social Security (VSS), the implementing agency for Vietnam’s social health insurance scheme.

As this work draws to a close in January 2017, HITAP and Imperial College visited Hanoi to plan the next phase of iDSI activities with HSPI. iDSI is now also engaging with VSS to explore practical ways of issuing a revised benefit package (based on both clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence) as a national healthcare payer, in order to achieve efficient, fair and high quality UHC.