Evaluating Primary Health Care Policies: A Step Towards Identifying Human Resource Issues in Commune Health Stations in Vietnam

This literature review is part of a collaborative project between the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI), based in Hanoi, Vietnam and the Human Resources for Health Knowledge Hub (HRH Hub), University of New South Wales. There is interest in finding a realistic, policy-relevant methodology and approach that can be used to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the primary health care (PHC) system in Vietnam. This review documents the ways in which PHC has been evaluated in low- and middle income countries (LMICs), with a focus given to countries that have undergone health sector reforms similar to Vietnam. It will inform a PHC policy analysis currently being conducted by HSPI and assist in conducting operational research to evaluate the effectiveness of Commune Health Stations (the basic unit of the PHC network) in the changing health system of Vietnam.