Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến ordered the K Hospital’s Management Board on Thursday afternoon to clarify the responsibility of handling complaints from patients. — Photo vnexpress.net

HÀ NỘI — Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến ordered the K Hospital’s Management Board on Thursday afternoon to clarify the responsibility of handling complaints from patients.

The order came after Tiến paid a surpirse visit to four major hospitals in Hà Nội on Thursday morning. The hospitals were K Hospital, E Hospital, National Hospital of Endocrinology and Việt Nam – Soviet Friendship Hospital.

Patients at the K hospital’s branch in Tân Triều Commune said some doctors and nurses in the pediatrics department failed to show the correct attitude when patients asked for help in stopping fluid transfusions or replacing bedcovers.

The minister also received complaints about patients having to pay doctors to get examined quicker, some people being examined without queuing as they knew doctors or nurses, and up to four patients having to share a bed.

K Hospital was given the lowest rank among the four hospitals based on the satisfaction level of patients, data from a survey by the health ministry said.

Tiến said “The situation must be brought under control so that it does not affect the quality of examinations and treatment as well as the image of doctors.”

She told K Hospital to quickly tackle the bed sharing problem.

“Could you bear it if four of you were forced to share a same bed?” she asked the hospital’s doctors.

On the other hand, in the National Hospital of Endocrinology’s branch in Tam Hịệp Commune, most patients appreciated the attitude of doctors and nurses, while the toilets were clean and accessible to those with disabilities.

Vũ Thị Minh Hạnh, deputy head of the ministry’s Heath Strategy and Policy Institute said the survey revealed that 91.3 per cent patients were satisfied with the attitude of doctors and nurses in E Hospital.

This hospital gained the highest rank among the four hospitals based on the satisfaction of patients, Hạnh said.

Tiến said she recognised the efforts of the hospitals to improve their service quality.

She said after each time she visited hospitals, she saw many changes.

This time, the quality of the hospitals was improved compared to the last time she visited and all the toilets were clean, she said.

However, she required the hospitals to continue improving to satisfy patients every day. — VNS