HCM City is planning to restructure its primary healthcare system towards providing family medicine and other services. — VNA/VNS Photo by Đinh Hằng

HCM CITY — Starting this month, the municipal health department will hold monthly meetings with medical workers at primary healthcare centres to promote family medicine and other initiatives.

The aim is to improve primary healthcare system and offer better initial medical services to residents.

The city now has 133 hospitals and 7,000 specialist clinics and polyclinics, but only 310 commune and ward medical stations with 1,700 medical workers.

The department is working on a draft plan to restructure the city’s primary healthcare centres depending on population size. For example, it will have a commune and ward healthcare station for 10,000-20,000 people.

Department director Tăng Chí Thượng said at a meeting on Tuesday that they have working to transform primary healthcare services into family medicine.

The department will also launch the World Health Organisation's package of essential noncommunicable disease interventions, also known as WHO PEN, at the primary healthcare level in the near future, Thượng said.

The package includes risk assessment and management for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, early cancer diagnosis, health education, smoking cessation counselling, self-care and palliative care.

It will be piloted at some medical stations before being implemented at all the stations.

Thượng said ward and commune medical stations continued to offer initial medical services to residents, but focusing on management and treatment for noncommunicable diseases according to WHO standards.

He said the department was working with the city Social Security Agency to supply essential drugs for treatment of diseases in the package. — VNS