People aged 65 and above get vaccinated in HCM City’s District 3 on August 3. VNA/VNS.Photo Thanh Vũ

HCM CITY — HCM City will use more hospitals to treat severe COVID-19 patients since the designated hospitals now are almost full, Phan Văn Mãi, deputy secretary of the city Party Committee, has said.

Speaking to the media on August 5 he said the city is improving treatment capacity at district-level hospitals and equipping them with oxygen cylinders to meet emergency demand.

From this weekend five more district-level hospitals with 1,000 beds will be used to treat moderately sick patients with underlying medical conditions.     

There are four hospitals to treat severe patients and those with life-threatening conditions, and the city is doubling the capacity of one of them, the Oncology Hospital’s branch in Thủ Đức City, to 1,000 beds.   

Mãi said the four hospitals needed more doctors, nurses and modern equipment, and the city was focusing on that.

The Ministry of Health has instructed Bạch Mai, Việt-Đức and Huế Central hospitals and the HCM City University Medical Centre to set up intensive care centres in the city.

The city is seeking to admit patients in time to reduce the fatality rate, since many of its large number of patients have become severely sick, leading to huge pressure on hospitals which face a shortage of human resource and equipment, according to Mãi.  

The designated hospitals sometimes refused to admit patients in time as a result, he added.

Limit fatality

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Trường Sơn told Tuổi Trẻ newspaper that all COVID patients should be admitted to designated hospitals when they start to have symptoms. And then, based on their condition, they should be classified and sent to higher-level hospitals in the five-level model set up by the city Department of Health.

Various medicines could be used soon to reduce patients’ viral load.

COVID patients and those who suspect they have contracted it and are isolated at home could call a hotline, 093.95.96.999, for consultancy, from August 5.

The consultancy is provided by health centres in all 22 districts and Thủ Đức City in co-operation with the Thầy thuốc đồng hành network of physicians.

It also helps classify high-risk groups who need to be hospitalised for treatment by sending their information to community-based COVID teams, task forces in districts, wards and communes and the 115 Emergency Aid Centre. VNS