Vietnam..Overloaded central hospitals in need of support

HÀ NỘI — Local-level health care facilities are expected to increase their capacity and provide better services to help reduce pressure at central hospitals by “gaining public trust”, said Nguyễn Nam Liên, director of the Planning and Finance Department under the Ministry of Health (MoH), at the ministry’s press conference yesterday.

As Vietnamese in general tend to skip their local health facilities to go straight to central hospitals located in urban centres when they seek treatment, causing persistent overloading at these hospitals, the Government has been trying to find ways to improve the attractiveness of grassroots health care.

Director Liên said that in the coming time, the health ministry would continue to invest in grassroots health care, especially at the district and commune level. Grassroots medical health facilities are also ordered to strengthen preventive care, monitoring and management of non-communicable diseases, as well as early diagnosis and effective initial treatment to help curb treatment costs for the people and the health insurance fund.

Medical facilities that saw an increase in hospital visits must arrange for more doctors during peak periods to make sure that each patient is examined sufficiently.

Facilities that frequently face an overflow of patients must report to the provincial People’s Committee to increase beds and staff, or to transfer patients to another facility.

Grassroots level medical facilities are also asked to draw 3-5 per cent of their revenues from bed fees, treatment and examination fees to invest in upgrading infrastructure, medical equipment and other utilities.

Liên said the health ministry would continue promoting technology transfer, including transfer of medical staff, from central level hospitals to their lower level counterparts.

The Việt Nam Social Security (VSS) would regularly hold unannounced inspections to report to the health ministry on medical facilities that have prescribed excessive medical services or unnecessarily long inpatient treatment for patients.