Dilapidated medical station, low income
In recent times, Ho Chi Minh City has invested hundreds of billions of VND to upgrade, renovate, and invest in medical equipment for 55/464 health stations, medical points, etc. However, there are still many health stations, medical points, medical centers, and regional hospitals that are degraded and need to be rebuilt.
Doctor CKI Le Thanh Quyet, Deputy Director in charge of the Go Vap District Medical Center, said that in the Go Vap, Hanh Thong, An Nhon, An Hoi Dong, Thong Tay Hoi and An Hoi Tay wards managed by the center, there are 6 health stations and 8 medical points, of which 9 facilities need major renovation and repair. In addition, the Go Vap District Medical Center, which is nearly 50 years old, has seriously degraded.
"In 2023, the city plans to renovate, repair, and build new health stations, but so far, 9 health stations in the area have not yet implemented any projects," shared Dr. Le Thanh Quyet...
Regarding the delay in the renovation, repair and construction of 146 health stations, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Project Management Board (project investor) said that there were many reasons, both subjective and objective. Some localities did a good job with the 1/500 planning, but some localities did not coordinate closely with the board..., leading to delays in project approval. Given this reality, the board has sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requesting the suspension of the project and moving it to the 2026-2030 phase.
In addition to the health center, the city also has projects to build new hospitals that are slow to be implemented. For example, after decades of operation, Khanh Hoi Hospital now has warped tile floors, leaky walls, substandard patient rooms, and old, outdated equipment.
In the same situation, Phu Nhuan Hospital's facilities are seriously degraded and cramped, but it still has to use most of its yard as a parking lot to serve about 1,500-2,000 people coming for examination and treatment every day.
In addition, the city's health sector is also facing a shortage of human resources, especially at the grassroots level, due to the fact that the remuneration regime is not strong enough to attract and retain medical staff. Leaders of some regional hospitals said that the current allowance levels for medical staff are still inadequate, such as the 24/7 on-call allowance for the past 14 years has remained at VND90,000/person/shift, while the basic salary has been adjusted 8 times, currently at a coefficient of 2.34. On-call allowances, surgery, procedures, etc. have not been adjusted accordingly.
Investing in the “front line”
According to health experts, with profound changes in disease patterns, such as the increase in non-communicable diseases, population aging, etc., the quality of public health services needs to be improved. Therefore, the "bottlenecks" in facilities, human resources, and application of information technology in digitizing electronic medical records need to be removed.
Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Phung Nguyen The Nguyen, Head of the Faculty of Medicine, Head of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, said that in order for the city's grassroots health system to change from a passive state of examining and treating patients to a state of caring for and protecting people's health even before they have a disease, the city's health sector needs to solve the problem of ensuring enough human resources, with the right allocation, so that each health station must have a family doctor, community nurse, pharmacist, and rehabilitation technician. The allocation needs to be based on the disease map and the actual needs of each area, instead of spreading and leveling. Next, it is necessary to retrain to shift the focus from treatment to disease prevention.
YTCS staff need to be retrained in family medicine, chronic disease management, infection prevention, and life-cycle care. They should not only “treat” people when they come to the station, but also “maintain health” for the community early on.
“The best disease prevention solution for people is that in addition to ensuring full vaccination coverage for children, the YTCS needs to expand vaccination against influenza, pneumococcus, hepatitis... for adults. At the same time, early screening programs for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer should be implemented at the grassroots level to reduce the burden on upper-level facilities,” Associate Professor, Dr. Phung Nguyen The Nguyen emphasized.
From the grassroots perspective, Dr. Tran Van Khanh, Director of Le Van Thinh Hospital, analyzed that recently, the hospital has proactively supported the grassroots medical line by establishing satellite clinics at some health stations in An Khanh and Binh Trung wards. Thereby, the effectiveness of medical examination and treatment at the grassroots level has been significantly improved, with an average of 300-500 people coming for medical examination and treatment every day.
From this approach, the city needs to develop a plan to stabilize human resources, link the health care system with the promotion path, and truly consider it a "lifetime career" for the grassroots health care team. Next, develop a system of well-trained general practitioners (family doctors); continuously rotate doctors from higher levels to health care systems and vice versa to improve clinical capacity, maintain solidarity and develop the team.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, the city currently has 38 medical centers, 168 health stations, and 296 medical points, but there are only about 1,800 medical staff in the entire system, with an average of 5-10 staff per station. With a population of more than 14 million people, each medical staff is responsible for taking care of 6,000-6,500 people. This is an enormous workload, leading to a decrease in the quality of health care for the people.
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nang-chat-y-te-co-so-no-luc-dam-bao-cham-soc-suc-khoe-cong-dong-post809533.html
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