In order to respond to the specific urban population model and optimize public health resources, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health is implementing a plan to rearrange and reorganize the hospital system in the area towards expanding "nuclear hospitals" to other areas of the city.
This arrangement not only helps reduce the load on end-line hospitals but also helps people get closer to a specialized and modern healthcare system in the spirit of Resolution 72-NQ/TW dated September 9, 2025 of the Politburo "On a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health."
Paradox of hospitals: some are overloaded, others are empty
After the merger, Ho Chi Minh City has 174 public hospitals, most of which are concentrated in the old Ho Chi Minh City area. This creates a big gap, with some places having excess and some lacking in the overall picture of the city's health sector.
While the final level hospitals have cramped facilities and are increasingly overloaded as the number of patients continues to increase, the hospitals in the Binh Duong (old) and Ba Ria-Vung Tau (old) regions have not yet attracted patients, and some hospitals are even abandoned.
A typical example is Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, although it put into operation a second facility with 1,000 beds more than 2 years ago, it is now overloaded.
According to Dr. Diep Bao Tuan, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, the number of patients coming to the hospital for examination and treatment increases by about 20% each year compared to the previous year. Currently, the hospital has had to add 200 more beds to meet the demand, but this is only a temporary solution and will certainly continue to be overloaded in the future.
Similarly, hospitals such as Tu Du Hospital, People's Hospital 115, Orthopedic Hospital... have also been overloaded for many years. Notably, some hospitals such as Orthopedic Hospital, Mental Hospital... have not been invested in expansion or upgrading for many years, causing the facilities to be cramped, old, and seriously degraded.
On the other hand, in the old Binh Duong area, Binh Duong General Hospital is now the largest hospital in Ho Chi Minh City with an area of 16 hectares and a capacity of 1,500 beds, but it is abandoned and unused.
This project started in 2014, with a total investment of more than 4,500 billion VND. However, up to now, after more than 10 years of implementation, the hospital has not been able to be put into operation due to many slow construction items that have not been completed synchronously.
Similarly, another building that has been abandoned for many years in this area is Binh Duong Mental Hospital. Binh Duong Mental Hospital was completed in 2018 with a scale of 300 beds, an investment capital of up to nearly 250 billion VND, but has not been put into use yet.
In addition, Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital also has hundreds of beds, but only a part of it has been assigned to Binh Duong General Hospital, the rest is still left unused, which is extremely wasteful.
In the old Ba Ria-Vung Tau area, after the two hospitals, Ba Ria Hospital and Le Loi Hospital, moved to new facilities, the old facilities of these two hospitals have not been put into use for other purposes. Currently, both of these facilities are abandoned and seriously degraded.
Hospitals that are abandoned or do not develop specialized departments force many people to travel long distances to hospitals in the central area of Ho Chi Minh City for examination and treatment, causing overload and wasting people's time and effort.
Promote high-quality medical coverage throughout the area
After a field survey, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has proposed that the City People's Committee agree to the policy of renovating and restoring the operations of Binh Duong Mental Hospital and Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital.
Specifically, the Department of Health proposed to turn Binh Duong Mental Hospital into the second facility of Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital, and Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital into the second facility of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital.
Along with that, the two old facilities of Ba Ria Hospital and Le Loi Hospital will also be built into the second and third facilities of the final specialized hospitals for oncology and obstetrics and gynecology. It is expected that Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital will receive the facilities of Ba Ria Hospital and Tu Du Hospital or Hung Vuong Hospital will receive the facilities of Le Loi Hospital.
After hearing the news that the final hospitals will build facilities 2 and 3 in long-abandoned hospitals, many people in this area are extremely excited.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Linh (71 years old, living in Nam Hoa Long quarter, Tam Long ward) said that every time she had a breast cancer check-up at Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, she had to take a bus from 3 am to be on time for the examination.
"If there was a Cancer Hospital facility near my house, patients like me would have less trouble and save on travel and accommodation costs. I really hope this project will soon become a reality," Ms. Linh shared.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lien (32 years old, living on Hoang Hoa Tham street, Vung Tau ward) also hopes that there will be a specialized obstetrics and pediatrics hospital near her home so that she can give birth locally, both economically and safely.
In order to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment in the old Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau areas, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has also assigned specialized hospitals to provide professional support to hospitals located in the area. The Department of Health has assigned Gia Dinh People's Hospital, Children's Hospital 2, Orthopedic Trauma Hospital, Tu Du Hospital, Binh Dan Hospital... to provide professional support to Vung Tau General Hospital.
Dr. Lam Tuan Tu, Director of Vung Tau General Hospital, hopes that this support and companionship will help the hospital develop more synchronously and comprehensively in areas such as management, operation, examination, treatment, patient care and especially in the training of high-quality medical staff. Thereby, Vung Tau General Hospital will gradually improve its position, towards a modern-professional-friendly hospital model, better meeting the health care needs of local people.
Doctor Nguyen Thi Uyen Chi, Deputy Director in charge of management and operation of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Traditional Medicine Hospital, was very pleased when the Department of Health assigned Ho Chi Minh City Traditional Medicine Hospital to provide professional support to this unit.
“In the coming time, with the comprehensive support of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Traditional Medicine, we will promote the development orientation in a specialized and comprehensive direction, linking medical development with the practical benefits and legitimate needs of the people. We hope to bring more practical benefits to the people in the old Ba Ria-Vung Tau area in health care with specialized traditional medicine treatment methods," said Dr. Nguyen Thi Uyen Chi.
Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, assessed that the expansion of facilities to the Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau areas (old) helps specialized medical services get closer to the people, suitable for the context of a population exceeding 13.6 million people after the merger.
Currently, the Department has proposed and received approval from the City People's Committee to expand the network of end-line hospitals to the areas of Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau (old).
Expanding the “core hospital” model to other areas of Ho Chi Minh City is a breakthrough solution because instead of building new, costly hospitals, leveraging the brand and capacity of the end-line hospitals will quickly attract patients and ensure the quality of treatment. This not only helps reduce pressure on end-line hospitals but also contributes to improving the quality of health care, ensuring fairness in health care for people across the area./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/sap-nhap-co-so-y-te-o-tp-ho-chi-minh-dua-y-te-chat-luong-cao-ve-gan-dan-post1076080.vnp
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