Vietnamese Doctors' Day, 27 February

As early as the 14th century, the physician Tuệ Tĩnh promoted using native plants to treat Vietnamese patients, summed up in his famous idea of "southern medicine for southern people". He collected hundreds of local herbs, recorded folk remedies and is honoured as the founder of national medicine.

In the 18th century, Hải Thượng Lãn Ông Lê Hữu Trác left the vast work Y tông tâm lĩnh, which covers not only illness and medicine but medical ethics. He saw medicine as a humane calling: a doctor must treat the poor as the rich and set aside fame and profit. That ethical tradition is still kept by Vietnamese medicine today.

Right after the August Revolution of 1945, the provisional government set up the Ministry of Health. When the resistance war against France began, many doctors and pharmacists left the cities for the Việt Bắc base, built clinics in the forest, operated on the wounded by oil lamp and made medicine from local materials.

Professor Tôn Thất Tùng, Professor Đặng Văn Ngữ, Dr Phạm Ngọc Thạch and many others gave both their skill and their health to patients and soldiers. From those field clinics grew a generation of doctors who were both skilled and close to the people, laying the foundation of the revolutionary health service.

On 27 February 1955, President Hồ Chí Minh wrote to the conference of health workers. He reminded them that patients entrust their lives to doctors, so health workers must love and care for patients as their own brothers and sisters, and feel their pain as their own.

He urged the profession to stay united, to combine modern medicine with the nation's healing traditions and to serve the people wholeheartedly. The line from his letter became the motto of generations of Vietnamese doctors, displayed in hospitals and medical schools across the country.

A good doctor must be like a loving mother.

President Hồ Chí Minh's letter to health workers, 27 February 1955

In 1985, thirty years after the letter, the Council of Ministers issued Decision 39-HĐBT, making 27 February Vietnamese Doctors' Day each year. Since then the date has honoured doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, technicians and everyone working in health care.

In those same years the State began awarding the titles of People's Doctor and Distinguished Doctor to those with outstanding skill and medical ethics. The awards are usually presented around 27 February, a source of pride for the recipients and the hospitals where they work.

From 2020 to 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic put health care to an unprecedented test. Tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and medical students left their families for field hospitals and quarantine zones, many working for months on end in sealed protective suits.

Pictures of doctors snatching sleep on chairs and the messages written on their protective gowns moved the whole country. In those years 27 February became a day of special gratitude, as people sent thanks, flowers and handwritten letters to health facilities nationwide.

Today, around 27 February, hospitals hold ceremonies, award staff and welcome back retirees. Medical teams travel to remote areas for free check-ups and medicine, while blood donation drives are held that same week. Shifts carry on as normal, because illness takes no holidays.

For patients and families, a bunch of flowers, a handwritten card or a thank-you in person is the most meaningful gift. In companies it is also a day to thank the in-house doctors and health staff who quietly look after everyone's wellbeing all year round.