Ho Chi Minh City: Bringing high-quality medical services to the most remote areas

“No one is left behind, even in the farthest places!” - With that motto, the Ho Chi Minh City Health Department has implemented many activities to ensure that every citizen, whether in remote islands or remote rural areas, has access to health care services, especially disease screening, examination, treatment and rehabilitation.

Good doctors rotate to Con Dao

The rotation program of specialist doctors to work in Con Dao launched by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has brought a strong message about the service spirit of the city's health sector after the merger. This is not simply a geographical expansion, but also a spread of the sense of responsibility of doctors to the most remote areas.

Doctors perform endoscopy at Con Dao Military Medical Center.

Immediately after merging the 3 Departments of Health (Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong , Ba Ria - Vung Tau), in mid-July 2025, the Board of Directors of the Department of Health together with the city's general and specialized hospitals conducted a field survey in Con Dao special zone. After that, the Department of Health called for the spirit of shock and volunteerism of young doctors and nurses, ready to overcome difficulties to go to Con Dao special zone to serve.

By early September 2025, seven highly qualified specialists in the fields of internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, trauma and orthopedics, anesthesia and resuscitation, and nephrology - dialysis, from Binh Dan, Hung Vuong, Trauma and Orthopedics, Children's Hospital 1, Gia Dinh People's Hospital, etc., officially began working on rotation at the Con Dao Military-Civilian Medical Center.

The team of specialist doctors not only directly participates in medical examination and treatment but also undertakes training and technology transfer tasks, contributing to improving the professional capacity of the medical team at Con Dao Military-Civilian Medical Center.

The people of Con Dao are very happy. The number of people coming to the Con Dao Military-Civilian Medical Center has increased 2.5 times compared to before, from an average of 80 visits/day to more than 200 visits/day. The number of inpatients has increased by more than 70%. Many serious, complicated cases with a high risk of death have been detected and promptly treated on the spot. Notably, on September 20, 2025, doctors successfully performed two cases of acute appendicitis on the same day using laparoscopic surgery - something that has never happened before, because such emergency cases usually have to be transferred to the mainland.

In addition to examination and treatment, the specialists also directly train, guide and transfer many specialized techniques to the medical team at the Con Dao Military-Civilian Medical Center. At the same time, they organize professional activities, on-site consultations and connect remote consultations with upper-level hospitals, helping the local medical team improve their capacity to handle complex situations. By early October 2025, the second phase of the doctor rotation program was deployed with the participation of excellent doctors, their work was much more favorable thanks to the experience from the first phase...

Developing a widespread medical network towards smart medicine

Up to now, Tan Kien Medical Cluster has completed and put into operation many hospitals such as: City Children's Hospital (1,000 beds), Blood Transfusion - Hematology Hospital (300 beds), City Forensic Center, Medical Testing Center (belonging to Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine). Tan Kien Medical Cluster is planned to gather many large hospitals, medical facilities and leading medical universities.

This is considered one of three specialized medical clusters according to the planning of Ho Chi Minh City for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, and is also the first model Institute - School in Vietnam, considered a "bright spot", a "breakthrough, innovation" step of the city in general and the health sector in particular. In phase 2, Tan Kien Medical Cluster will continue to expand in scale and improve the quality of operations with the following projects: 115 Emergency Center - Facility 2; Blood Bank; Laboratory Calibration Center; Trauma Hospital (1,000 beds); Research Institute and 500-bed General Hospital of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine...

Along with Tan Kien Medical Cluster, Ho Chi Minh City is also building hospitals in the gateway area to reduce the load on upper-level hospitals. Cu Chi Regional General Hospital, Thu Duc Regional General Hospital, Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital... have been put into operation, contributing to meeting the medical examination and treatment needs of the people. In addition, the Department of Health has signed a comprehensive cooperation and professional support agreement between Military Hospital 175 and 7 other end-level hospitals in the city, along with Emergency Center 115 and Cu Chi Regional General Hospital for the period 2025-2028, in order to continuously improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, aiming to become a complete Grade I general hospital, a trauma emergency center and a stroke center at the Northwest gateway of Ho Chi Minh City.

In particular, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health also proposed that the City People's Committee hand over the land of the old Ba Ria Provincial Hospital and the land of the old Le Loi Hospital to open the second facility of the Oncology and Obstetrics specialized hospitals, helping to improve the provision of health care services for people in the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area and tourists. At the same time, build a project to establish the second facility of Tu Du Hospital in Can Gio commune, accelerate the expansion of the network of satellite emergency stations in the two areas of Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau (old), bringing the total number of 115 satellite emergency stations in the whole city to 59 stations and 1 emergency center.

Currently, the Ho Chi Minh City Health sector is also actively implementing a smart healthcare development program, including: building an electronic medical record system (EMR) at hospitals; implementing remote medical consultation and treatment (Telemedicine); applying artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnosis and treatment... to continuously improve the quality of healthcare for the people.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/Xa-hoi/tp-ho-chi-minh-dua-dich-vu-y-te-chat-luong-cao-den-vung-xa-nhat-i785483/