Vietnam - Health Minister commits to reduce hospital overload after 2015

VietNamNet Bridge - Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the National Assembly Standing Committee--that reducing the overload at state-owned hospitals in big cities is one of the ministry’s key tasks until 2015.

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At the question and answer session on March 26, Ms. Tien said that the Ministry of Health had submitted a master plan to the government with specific solutions for dealing with the situation.

Besides questions about the overload at big public hospitals, National Assembly deputies raised many questions about the increase of hospital fees, medical ethics, medicine auction and the operation of private hospitals.

Ms. Tien said that priority will be given to increasing the number of hospital beds, upgrading provincial and district level hospitals, and building satellite hospitals specializing in cancer, plastic surgery and other diseases.

She also stressed the need to tighten control of the transfer of patients from local medical centers to centrally-run hospitals to avoid overcrowding and spreading infections.

She suggested developing private hospitals to ease the State’s public healthcare burden. However, she pointed out that private hospitals generally lack professional equipment and qualified doctors, although they enjoy preferential capital, land, tax and administrative advantages.

Private hospitals are currently employing retired and inexperienced young doctors who do not inspire patients’ trust, said Ms. Tien.

She welcomed adjusting medical sector policies to attract outside resources for healthcare development, which would enable public hospitals to finance themselves, establish joint ventures, and purchase modern equipment.    

Several hospitals are making full use of the self-finance mechanism and certain legal loopholes to cash in on services. A comprehensive financial mechanism is needed during this transitional period so the medical sector can accomplish its assigned tasks, she said. 

According to the Health Minister, this year the Ministry of Health will ask the government to consider two decrees on renewing the financial mechanism for hospitals and adjusting the cost of hospital services.

For the time being, it will pilot a project to reduce the overload at K (Cancer) and Bach Mai Hospitals, two leading centrally-run hospitals in Hanoi, and several departments at other major hospitals.

She confirmed that the master plan will pay off in 2015, and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will be the pioneers in putting it in place.

Le Ha

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