Long An: Investing, removing difficulties to improve the quality of people's health care

In the first six months of 2025, the Long An provincial health sector has achieved many targets that increased compared to the same period in 2024, focusing on investing in improving the quality of medical examination and treatment for the people.

In the remaining months of the year, the sector will focus on implementing the Project to establish the Tay Ninh Provincial Department of Health on the basis of merging the Long An Department of Health and the old Tay Ninh Department of Health to stabilize the organizational structure, remove difficulties, and continue to provide the best care for people, especially in remote areas.

Improve the quality of medical examination and treatment

Vinh Hung is a remote commune near the Southwest border, merging the entire natural area and population of Vinh Hung town, part of the natural area and population of the communes: Vinh Tri, Thai Tri, Khanh Hung, Thai Binh Trung and the remaining parts of Vinh Thuan and Vinh Binh communes (former Vinh Hung district, Long An).

To improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, to best serve the people, Vinh Hung commune has invested in upgrading the medical station's facilities, equipped it with more modern medical equipment, enhanced professional training for medical staff, and expanded mobile medical examination programs to remote areas.

The locality promotes primary health care for the people and closely coordinates with upper-level hospitals to improve treatment efficiency and timely referral when necessary.

Vinh Hung Regional Medical Center (formerly Vinh Hung District Medical Center, Long An Province), was established in 1978. In 2006, the center invested in building new facilities as it is today.

In 2024, the locality will invest about 30 billion VND to build 30 new beds and expand the Pharmacy and Emergency Departments, expected to be completed in 2025. Old buildings will also be renovated and repainted, contributing to improving medical examination and treatment conditions.

The unit currently has 231 officers and employees. Over the years, the medical staff here has always strived to fulfill the task of providing primary health care for people in remote areas.

Mr. Do Van Phung (born in 1985, residing in Vinh Hung commune) said that every time he has a health problem, he goes to Vinh Hung Regional Medical Center for examination and treatment.

The quality of service provided by the medical staff has improved and is getting better and better. He hopes that the local medical center will have many high-quality medicines to meet the medical needs of the people.

According to Specialist I Doctor Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, Deputy Director of Vinh Hung Regional Medical Center, the facility is using both paper medical records and internal patient management software system in parallel.

The implementation of electronic medical records is expected to begin in September 2025, with the roadmap to be completed in early 2026. However, the implementation still depends on investment funding in the coming time.

Currently, the center has been equipped with a 32-slice CT machine for diagnostic imaging. However, the center still has many old and degraded medical devices, affecting the examination and treatment work.

Recruiting new doctors is difficult. Specifically, in 2024, the center only recruited 1 out of 5 doctors needed. To overcome this situation, the unit continues to propose recruiting 5 more doctors in 2025.

In Vinh Hung, along with medical examination and treatment, preventive medicine, disease surveillance and propaganda to mobilize people to participate in health insurance are also focused on.

Chairman of Vinh Hung Commune People's Committee Nguyen Van Tuan said that in 2025, the commune will continue to identify healthcare as a key area to improve people's quality of life. Therefore, the commune focuses on synchronously implementing many solutions from protecting public health, controlling epidemics, environmental sanitation, to investing in equipment and improving the quality of medical human resources.

“We aim to complete electronic health records so that all people can be monitored, managed, examined and provided with nationwide health care; at the same time, we will mobilize resources to upgrade facilities and enhance human resource training in expertise and medical ethics. Overcoming the shortcomings of Vinh Hung Regional Medical Center is also a priority this year,” Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan emphasized.

Efforts to complete important targets

The results of implementing the province's health targets in the first 6 months of 2025 increased compared to the same period in 2024. Specifically: The ratio of doctors per 10,000 people reached 9.8 doctors; the rate of people participating in universal health insurance reached 94.72%, continuing to maintain a wide coverage level in the community, helping to reduce medical costs for people and increase access to basic health services.

In reproductive health and child care, the sector maintains the following indicators: 98.57% of young men and women receive pre-marital health consultation and examination; 98.9% of pregnant women are screened for at least 4 common congenital diseases; 98.35% of newborns are screened for at least 5 congenital diseases. The rate of children under 1 year old who are fully vaccinated is 56.9%, although not high, it has improved compared to the same period in 2024.

In particular, the implementation of electronic health records software continues to be effective. To date, 97.91% of the province's population has had their health managed through this system - an important step in promoting digital transformation.

Mr. Mai Van Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Health of Tay Ninh province, said that in the last 6 months of 2025, the sector will focus on completing 3 main targets assigned by the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, including: Achieving 10 doctors/10,000 people; the rate of universal health insurance reaching 95%; the rate of stunting malnutrition in children under 5 years old decreasing to 17.1%.

To realize this goal, the health sector continues to review the progress of implementing the province's action programs, remove difficulties in areas with low indicators; and at the same time improve the quality of grassroots health activities.

The sector has promoted the implementation of digital health services such as medical examination and treatment using citizen identification cards, biometrics, and cashless hospital payment; updated and managed electronic health records for the entire population; strengthened prevention and control of epidemics such as dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease, measles, rabies, etc.; especially organized catch-up vaccinations for children who were not fully vaccinated due to lack of vaccines in the previous period.

Tay Ninh continues to encourage people to participate in health insurance, raise awareness of self-care; at the same time, strictly manage private pharmaceutical and medical facilities, ensuring safe and effective service for the people./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/long-an-dau-tu-thao-go-kho-khan-de-nang-cao-chat-luong-cham-soc-suc-khoe-nhan-dan-post1052326.vnp