A child patient receives examination at the programme (Photo: VNA)

The programme is arranged by a delegation of experts from the Republic of Korea’s (RoK) Chonbuk National University, and Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital (Hue UMP). It provides free oral and maxillofacial surgeries for 30 children out of the kids.

On this occasion, doctors offer medical examinations for patients who received surgeries during last year’s programme. Following the surgeries, the young patients receive treatment at a centre for phonetic placement therapy at the hospital.

Dr Tran Tan Tai, vice head of the Faculty of Odonto-Stomatology at the Hue UMP, said Prof. Shin Hyo-keun of the Chonbuk National University and doctors and medical students from the RoK started to provide operations for 38 patients in 2006.

From then on, the RoK delegation arranges annual examinations and surgeries for patients at the Hue UMP, he noted.

To date, the programme has treated nearly 450 children with facial deformity in Vietnam’s central region, with about 350 of them receiving free cleft lip surgeries. The programme also offers opportunities for doctors of Vietnam and the RoK to share their experiences and improve their skills, he added.

In addition, the two universities have forged cooperation in many areas, including training and scientific research, grants for medical students, and admission of Hue UMP’s trainees to the RoK university, along with the establishment of a phonetic placement therapy centre for young patients, the first of its kind in the central and Central Highland regions.

VNF/VNA