HCMC – Dao Hong Lan, secretary of the Bac Ninh Province Party Committee, has been picked as acting minister of health, after over a month of Nguyen Thanh Long being detained and relieved from the post.
Among the 14 health ministers who took office since 1945 to date, Lan is the only one with no previous experience in healthcare.
Lan is the third female leader of the Health Ministry, after Tran Thi Trung Chien, who served as minister of health from 2002 to 2007, and Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, who was health minister from 2011 to 2019.
Lan, a 51-year-old native of Hai Duong Province in northern Vietnam, has a master’s degree in economics. Earlier, she held various posts in the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs, including the post of deputy minister, before serving as vice secretary of the Bac Ninh Province Party Committee in the 2015-2020 tenure and the provincial Party secretary in the 2020-2025 tenure.