Speaking at the Opening Ceremony, Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau - Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said that the health sector has a lot of information to provide to patients and people and must answer many questions every time reporters interview them.

If people do not contact the media and avoid the press, they will be curious to find out for themselves; when there is no official answer, they will look for side information, incorrect information, which will cause more crisis.

Regarding the handling of cosmetic clinics and inaccurate advertising online, Dr. Nguyen Van Vinh Chau shared that the health sector has now switched to proactively finding clinics that violate the law, handling them, and then publicizing them on the information portal and reposting them in the press. The shift from a passive to a proactive stance will help medical facilities communicate more easily with the press.

At this skills training class, hospital leaders and staff exchanged, discussed and pointed out difficulties, advantages, shared experiences, and situations encountered in the unit's operations. From there, they proposed steps for implementation, reception and handling to improve the effectiveness of communication work at hospitals and medical units.

The training course on press communication skills took place from August 6 to 9 with 4 topics: speaking and providing information to the press; preventing and handling media crises; communication skills, dealing with the media, press interview skills; practicing interviewing, writing press releases.

Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City Press Center organized 3 communication training courses for about 300 trainees who are leaders and officials of departments, branches, People's Committees of districts, Thu Duc City and communes, wards and towns. In the near future, the Ho Chi Minh City Press Center will organize similar training courses for officials of the banking and market management sectors.

P.Anh