Chairman of State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing opens Myanmar Health Sciences Conference (2023)
NAY PYI TAW March 11
Opening ceremony of Myanmar Health Sciences Conference (2023) was held at Myanmar International Convention Center-2 in Nay Pyi Taw at 8.30 am today, addressed by Chairman of State Administration Council Prime Minister Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Also present were SAC Vice Chairman Deputy Prime Minister Vice-Senior General Soe Win,SAC Joint Secretary Lt-Gen Ye Win Oo, SAC members, Union level officials, senior military officers from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, deputy ministers, high-level officers, internal and external health experts of various fields, rectors and professors of medical science, students of post-graduate courses, and distinguished guests.
First, the Vice-Senior General,the Union Health Minister, the director of directorate of Medical Services, the chairman of Myanmar Medical Council, the chairman of Myanmar Dental Oral Medical Council, the chairperson of Myanmar Nurse and Midwife Council, the vice chairperson of Myanmar Medical Practitioner Association formally opened the archway of the conference by cutting a ribbon.
The Senior General opened the archway commemorating the conference by pushing a button.
At the Plenary Hall of MICC-2 where the second part of the conference was held, the Senior General gave a speech.
He said the conference would be held under the heading “Quality Care in Medical Practice”, and its goals are: to enhance friendship among health experts of various fields from Nay Pyi Taw and regions and states, to coordinate academic matters through coordination, to develop treatment methods, to promote awareness of the advancing modern medical sciences through involvement of experts of various health fields, to encourage medical and medical related experts to continue their study on advancing medical sciences, to support quality public healthcare services.
It is a common knowledge that SAC has been promoting the health standard of the national people. COVID-19 Prevention, Control and Treatment Central Committee led by the Senior General, and COVID-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee led by the Vice-Senior General and bodies at all levels were set up, necessary tasks performed in time in order to prevent, contain and respond the COVID-19 pandemic that severely threatened life of the peoples and healthcare systems of global countries and to end its evil consequences on social and economic sectors. With government’s leadership and guidance, assistance from friendly countries based on energetic force medical experts including those from Ministry of Health and Ministry of Defence, internal volunteer organizations, and collective efforts of national people, the country could fight back and control COVID-19 infection to a certain degree.
The Senior General thanked all those who lent a helping hand and expressed belief that while taking the success as an example, the national people will be able to successfully overcome other health issues with collective strength.
Since SAC started shouldering the State duties, it has been implementing the five-point Roadmap in the interest of the nation and people. As SAC could successfully implement the second point -- Effective measures will be taken with added momentum to prevent and manage the COVID-19 pandemic – during the two-year emergency period, it has adopted a new 2nd point -- Public-centred development tasks will be undertaken for the development of socioeconomic life to ensure the prosperity and food sufficiency of the country – that also covers the entire health sector. SAC has been implementing the five-point Roadmap in accord with the four political objectives, four economic objectives and four social objectives.
In implementing the third social objective of the SAC – to further strengthen basic health care services of the nation and to emerge the health system for enhancement of longevity and health of the entire national people, the Ministry of Health plays a major role and the objective must be implemented step by step successfully in cooperation with the units of the Directorate of Medical Services of the Ministry of Defence, relevant departments, philanthropic organizations that aim to serve the interests of the country and the people and the public.
In taking measures for development of the healthcare sector to enhance longevity and health of the entire national people, it is necessary to carry out tasks for emergence of a healthcare system that provide medical services which is accessible to all equally including maternal and contraceptive health, infant and child healthcare and development, school healthcare and nourishment, prevention of infectious and non-infectious diseases, COVID-19 monitoring and vaccination, regular vaccinations, healthcare services for workplaces and environs and enhancement of health.
In enhancing basic healthcare services for longevity of everyone and life expectancy of the public, cooperation of relevant departments and organizations and the entire people is needed in addition to the tasks carried out by the Ministry of Health and health experts. Therefore, constant efforts must be made to raise health awareness of the people and to enable them to adopt healthy lifestyles.
In doing so, policies and projects have been developed and implemented to effectively provide services for prevention of diseases and quality treatments based on resources of the country. The government increases budget allocations for the health sector yearly to enable people's hospitals to provide healthcare services to emergency patients at any time, to provide necessary medicines, diagnosis and treatments to the people at low expenses as much as possible, to carry out maintenance and construction of hospitals so that the people can receive healthcare services conveniently and purchase modern medical equipment to provide quality treatments.
In addition to construction of housing quarters for health workers, measures are being taken to provide cash rewards and other benefits to them.
To nurture qualified healthcare human resources, 16 medical and medical science related institutes and 53 nursing and midwifery training schools have been opened and courses are conducted by reviewing their curriculums to fulfill the needs. It was learnt that the curriculums have been changed in accordance with result-based inter-professional teaching methods to meet international standards and inter-professional education and practical cooperation have been introduced to enable health workers to cooperate.
It is encouraging for public healthcare services to learn that healthcare training is conducted not only for quantity but also for quality by placing emphasis on ethics. Moreover, a new school admission system has been introduced since 2022 for institutes of medicine and institutes of dental medicine to select students who have passed matriculation examinations by scrutinizing whether they are truly interested in medical science, abide by medical ethics, want to perform duties in health field and can provide medical services out of compassion and goodwill.
It was learnt that the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health has been carrying out supervision and providing services systematically to manufacture and distribute quality medicines and foodstuffs to enable the public to consume them confidently.
The FDA is required to conduct tests on foodstuffs and medicines quickly and precisely.
The Ministry of Health must be congratulated on successfully organizing the Myanmar traditional medicine practitioners conferences and the Myanmar traditional medical science conferences 21 times with the aim of providing effective traditional medical services to the people by applying traditional medical science and promoting the standards of traditional medical science.
It was learnt that the Department of Medical Research of the Ministry of Health is conducting research constantly with the aim of enhancing the health status of the people. The department must be congratulated on successfully conducting researches on Myancopharm and related medicines, Withama fever medicine produced by the Department of Traditional Medicine, and mutation of germs and on successfully organizing Myanmar medical research conference 51 times.
Health human resources are required for the SAC to succeed in its roadmap. As the Ministry of Health works day and night to improve the country’s health standard and make sure the entire people live long free from diseases, I believe that today’s symposium will pave the way for realizing these objectives.
At the event, the professors at home and abroad from the health field and medal experts in attendance will inherit the legacy of healthcare to young doctors and medical experts of the young generation. Therefore, I want to urge the health experts and staff of the younger generation to hold effective discussions as they will have shares of knowledge about fundamentals, new concepts and experiences related to disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
It is the first symposium that the Ministry of Health organized and sponsored. Likewise, such a symposium involving multisectors in the health field should be held on a regular basis. During the meeting, local and international doctors will be extensively discussing treatment and surgeries over OG, child disease, bone, eye,ear and nose diseases, public healthcare services, study of those branches and practical cooperation among health experts.
So, all those in attendance will gain good knowledge and experiences and they will be able to apply them.
The people for thier part will have understanding of advanced treatment, public healthcare, production of human resources in the health sector, advanced medical research, traditional medicine development and food and drug control. They will also be aware that measures are being taken for the emergence of an affordable, inclusive quality health system for the people,
thereby contributing to their life expectancy. I recognize the efforts of the Nay Pyi Taw Council area, regions and states to provide treatment and surgeries for eye diseases, cleft lip and palate and eye tests to the local people as a campaign prior to the symposium.
All are urged to cooperate in the efforts for gradual improvement of Myanmar’s health standard by learning thoroughly from the knowledge and techniques from today’s event.
“As the strength of a nation lies within,” health and medical experts from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defence and other relevant ministries and from the private health sector are urged to work together in improving the country’s health sector. All are to work together for the emergence of the abovementioned health system with the aim of improving the country’s health standard, the people’s life expectancy and ensuring everyone is free from disease.
Next, a documentary video clip on the activities of the Ministry of Health was shown.
The Senior General had a group photo taken together with the experts from the health field and specially invited guests.
After the opening ceremony, the Senior General and those in attendance viewed the booths of various medical branches and societies for medical development, medicines and medical equipment, modern apparatuses and medicines, health education programmes, teaching aids, publications, documentary photos on the activities and achievements of relevant departments, and cooperation with the international community. The Senior General gave necessary suggestions in response to the reports by officials.
At the symposium, health and medical experts from the Ministry of Health and health field, military medical experts from the medical corps of the Directorate of Medical Services under the Office of the Commander-in-Chief (Army), retired health experts and members of the medical corps, out-of-service doctors and medical experts from the Asia and Southeast Asia regions will give lectures and discussions.