The second facility for the HCM City Blood Transfusion Hematology Hospital in Bình Chánh District was launched in May, 2022. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Striving to develop a project of building a network of community healthcare collaborators in HCM City, and submit it to city leaders for approval and implementation, is one of the 10 main tasks set out by the city’s health sector in 2023.

The city Department of Health has announced its outstanding achievements in 2022, and set its main tasks for 2023.

Next year, the city’s health sector will strengthen epidemic prevention, care and management of non-communicable diseases, and community health programmes.

It will continue improving the capacity of the city’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and supporting the construction of the Regional Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Southeast Asia Regional Office.

It will promote digital transformation, focusing on building a shared data warehouse and starting the roadmap for making electronic health records of residents.

It will learn from successful pharmaceutical industry models of other countries in the region in order to develop the pharmaceutical industry in the city by 2030, with a vision to 2045, and submit it to the municipal People's Committee for approval.

Learning from other countries' experiences, the city will develop its “Centre for screening and early diagnosis with high technology” project.

The city health sector will accelerate reform of administrative procedures and online public service provision, ensuring disbursements on schedule.

Health inspectors will strengthen checks on private medical practices and solutions to prevent illegal advertising activities.

It will develop an out-of-hospital emergency network with a focus on developing modern infrastructure for 115 emergency centres and applying information technology in the ambulance network.

A project to improve the medical capacity of Cần Giờ outlying district will be developed, including a plan and roadmap for the re-establishment of the district’s hospital.

Outstanding achievements

The city Department of Health is taking steps to recover its health system after a long time fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Right after the pandemic situation was under control from October 1, 2021 until now, the health sector closed the COVID-19 field hospitals.

The municipal People's Council issued a resolution to strengthen human resources for the grassroots health system and another resolution to help stabilise income for medical staff.

The health sector actively responded to epidemics, and prevented overlapping epidemics effectively.

The health sector controlled a new outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of the Omicron variant, while a dengue epidemic appeared earlier with a higher number of cases and mortality than previous years.

The dengue epidemic has been controlled and is gradually receding, with the number of severe cases and deaths reducing significantly in the last months of 2022.

The city Centre for Disease Control and Prevention took suitable preventative measures to deal with monkeypox.

Two monkeypox cases were detected when they arrived at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in October 2022, and were isolated and treated promptly, so it did not spread to the community.

The city health sector launched a community non-communicable disease management programme with technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) called “WHO's essential intervention package for non-communicable diseases”.

Many activities to detect and care for people with mental illnesses were implemented, especially for depression, which tended to increase amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A trial project between the 115 Emergency Centre and the HCM City Psychiatric Hospital was launched to offer assistance to people with signs of depression.

Besides the familiar 115 emergency line, it deployed the hotline 1900 1267 operated by the HCM City Psychiatric Hospital, which helps patients with signs of depression or their family members connect with the psychiatric experts.

In February 2022, the health sector piloted a clinical practice programme at the city's general and specialised hospitals for newly graduated doctors to obtain a licence to practise as a general practitioner.

Up to now, 286 doctors have been trained under this programme.

The health sector rotated young volunteer doctors and brought chest X-ray machines with integrated artificial intelligence to Thạnh An island commune in Cần Giờ District.

It carried out health checks and created electronic health records for people in the island commune to screen and detect inhabitants with chronic non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, blood pressure, diabetes, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

A non-communicable disease management programme under the WHO’s guidance will be implemented for people with hypertension, blood pressure, diabetes, bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The city's large general and specialised hospitals continued to make efforts to develop specialised techniques to improve the quality of treatment, towards building a specialised medical centre.

The Department of Health organised an online meeting, and officially launched a weekly programme of dialogue and listening to people's opinions to improve its online public administrative services.

It also held a programme to talk to and listen to medical staff working at affiliated units.

More new medical buildings were put into use in 2022, including the second facility for the Blood Transfusion Hematology Hospital in Bình Chánh District and the Children's Cardiovascular Surgery and Intervention Centre of HCM City Children's Hospital 1.

The health sector successfully organised the first contest “Excellent Chief of Medical Station” for medical staff who are in charge of health station management of grassroots healthcare facilities.

The contest attracted 374 health workers at 310 health stations in wards and communes across the city.

The city health sector officially launched the third Vietnam Medical Achievement Award 2022 for public health benefits.

The 15 most excellent entries voted by residents were selected by the contest’s expert council. The awarding ceremony is expected to be held in February this year. — VNS