French doctors have vision for quality healthcare in Vietnam
Bound by a love for Vietnam and its people, nine prominent French doctors were enjoying successful careers in France when they decided to come to HCMC and establish FV Hospital.
Eight of the ten founders (one lawyer and nine doctors) of FV Hospital posed for a photograph at the hospital.
Last Thursday, for the first time since FV’s inauguration five years ago, the founders gathered on what was formerly a marshy field to celebrate FV’s first major successes.
“Each one of us has at least a memory, a personal bind to the Vietnamese people and country,” said FV Hospital President Jean-Marcel Guillon, who saw FV through its struggling, nascent years.
Guillon is one of nine French doctors who, ten years ago, discovered they shared the same vision of building a modern, high-quality hospital in Vietnam.
“I had many memories of Vietnam,” recalled Stephane Romano, one of the nine founders of FV and the director of Clinique du Dome in Paris.
“When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I read and watched a lot about the war in Vietnam.
The images of wounded civilians and soldiers suffering from a shortage of doctors and hospitals moved me.
It was partly why I decided to become a surgeon,” said Romano, who also helped found the French Institute for Hand Surgery.
“In France, I worked with many Vietnamese doctors and students, and we often talked about health-care services in Vietnam,” said Luc Marcadal, head of the Anesthesia Department at Claude Galien Hospital in Paris.
“So in 1997, after visiting hospitals and talking with colleagues in Vietnam, I thought a great deal about the idea of investing in a hospital here,” he said.
The founders met and scouted out a piece of land in District 7, HCMC, as the site of their future hospital.
“We were looking for an appropriate location in 2001 when Guillon e-mailed me,” recalled Romano.
“I was surprised to see what Guillon had chosen: a desolate field surrounded by marshes and ponds.”
Last Thursday, for the first time since FV’s inauguration five years ago, the founders gathered on what was formerly a marshy field to celebrate FV’s first major successes.
2007 has been a remarkable year, said Guillon.
FV was officially recognized by the prestigious health services verification organization, Haute Autorité de Santé HAS in June.
This is also the first year FV has seen significant profits.
“The game is starting now,” said Guillon, alluding to the fierce competition in the Vietnamese healthcare market.
But it wasn't profits that lured them here, emphasized the founders.
“If we had only thought about material rewards, we wouldn't have invested in such a foreign and challenging environment as Vietnam,” said Romano.
By Vien Duong - Thanh Nien - December 6, 2007.
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