How does Ho Chi Minh City propose to restructure and dissolve hospitals, medical centers, and medical stations?

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has just completed a plan to reorganize and streamline the apparatus of public health service units. It includes a proposal to merge and dissolve many hospitals and regional health centers...

Ho Chi Minh City will merge Saigon General Hospital into Gia Dinh People's Hospital from January 1, 2026 - Photo: THU HIEN

On October 31, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said it had sent a document to the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and People's Committee on completing the plan to arrange public health service units.

Proposal to merge and dissolve many medical facilities

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, after the merger, from July 1, the Department of Health has 9 specialized departments, 2 branches and 124 affiliated public service units.

However, from September 1, there will be a reduction of 6 public service units compared to July 1, from 124 public service units to 118, including: 32 general hospitals, 28 specialized hospitals, 38 regional medical centers, 15 centers in the field of social protection...

The health sector will restructure or dissolve ineffective public service units, ensuring the improvement of the quality of basic and essential public services associated with restructuring and reducing the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the state budget.

For hospitals, merge Saigon General Hospital into Gia Dinh People's Hospital from January 1, 2026. Establish Tu Du Hospital (facility 2) in Can Gio commune on the basis of receiving inpatient treatment functions from Can Gio Regional Medical Center, expected in October 2025.

For Ba Ria - Vung Tau Traditional Medicine Hospital, it is proposed not to merge and assign Ho Chi Minh City Traditional Medicine Hospital to provide comprehensive support.

For Pham Huu Chi Lung Hospital, it is proposed not to merge and give Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital comprehensive support.

For Vung Tau General Hospital, Gia Dinh People's Hospital is responsible for comprehensive support, and specialized hospitals in the city are assigned to support other necessary specialties.

Regarding Ba Ria General Hospital, the Department of Health is conducting a comprehensive inspection of the hospital's organization, operations, professional capacity and management to point out shortcomings and limitations, as a basis for developing and implementing appropriate and effective support solutions in the next phase.

For city-level hospitals under the Department of Health, in addition to the above-mentioned hospitals, it is proposed to continue to maintain the same status to ensure stable medical examination and treatment work, serving the health care needs of the people.

In addition, the Department of Health is carrying out the procedures to receive and hand over the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Hospital. After completing the reception, the Department of Health will study, consider and propose a plan to merge the Ho Chi Minh City Transport Hospital into the second facility of the Rehabilitation - Occupational Disease Treatment Hospital.

The city will develop more models of the second facility of general and specialized hospitals reaching the specialized level covering the areas of the city such as: the old Ba Ria Hospital, located at 13 Pham Ngoc Thach Street, Ba Ria Ward, has proposed to assign the Oncology Hospital to deploy the third facility; Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital assigned Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital to deploy the second facility...

Consider upgrading the medical station to a hospital or a second facility of a hospital.

The Department of Health said that the city currently has 168 health stations (with 296 health points) belonging to 38 regional health centers under the Department of Health. In the next phase, it is proposed to establish 168 health stations under the People's Committees of wards, communes, and special zones from January 1, 2026.

This aims to strengthen the role of state management at the local level and ensure proactive primary health care for the people.

For 25 regional health centers without beds, transfer all personnel, facilities, and finances of the health center to the health station. After completing the transfer, proceed to dissolve the health center.

For 13 medical centers with beds, a part of the personnel, facilities and finances responsible for preventive medicine and primary health care functions of the medical centers will be transferred to the medical stations.

The Department of Health will consider proposals to upgrade qualified medical centers to hospitals or arrange them to become second facilities of suitable hospitals.

The reason these medical centers are located in the provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau (old), which are areas without many medical examination and treatment facilities and are far from upper-level general hospitals, is that it is necessary to continue maintaining the inpatient treatment and medical examination and treatment functions of the medical centers.

It is expected that after the reorganization, the Department of Health will have 91 affiliated public service units, a decrease of 27 units compared to before the reorganization.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tp-hcm-de-xuat-co-cau-giai-the-cac-benh-vien-trung-tam-y-te-tram-y-te-ra-sao-20251031192950416.htm