Medical check-ups for the elderly at a ward-level health station in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Đinh Hằng

HCM CITY — HCM City’s Department of Health is developing a comprehensive plan to upgrade local commune- and ward-level health stations into ‘mini hospitals’ to better serve residents' healthcare needs.

Nguyễn Anh Dũng, deputy director of the municipal Department of Health, said that after the recent administrative merger, the city now has 168 commune and ward-level health stations and 298 satellite points.

Under Ministry of Health guidelines, at least 125 of these stations, those with an area of over 500sq.m, will be standardised and equipped with essential departments and medical equipment to meet the demands of primary healthcare.

The health stations are the closest and most trusted medical facilities for local people. They must become the ‘gateway’ for community healthcare, Dũng said.

“Residents will receive initial check-ups, classification and treatment at these grassroots clinics, and only be referred to higher-level hospitals when truly necessary,” he said.

Following the merger, the city's population increased from over 9.9 million to 13.7 million people.

The number of hospitals also rose from 134 to 164. However, the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people dropped from 42 to 35, posing a significant challenge to ensuring quality healthcare services across the city.

To address this, the city’s healthcare sector plans to expand technical support and manpower transfers to grassroots health facilities.

Initially, it will provide comprehensive support to the medical centre in Côn Đảo Special Zone.

In tandem with the upgrades, the city will also rename district-level hospitals according to the new administrative divisions and launch a plan to enhance the professional capacity of all hospitals citywide.

Additionally, the Department of Health will expand health check-up programmes for the elderly and students, while accelerating the digital transformation of periodic health data to help build a universal health record system for all citizens. — VNS