Associate Professor Vũ Quốc Đạt. — Photo vov.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI — A proposal to relocate infectious disease hospitals out of central Hà Nội could weaken the city’s ability to respond to outbreaks, a medical expert has warned, arguing that such facilities should remain within the urban core.

The People’s Committee of Hà Nội is seeking public feedback on a draft master plan for the capital with a 100-year outlook. The plan includes an orientation to move high-risk infectious disease treatment facilities away from inner-city areas.

Associate Professor Vũ Quốc Đạt, a lecturer in infectious diseases at Hanoi Medical University, said the proposal should be reconsidered from a professional and public health management perspective.

“Relocating these facilities may appear reasonable, as it is often assumed that doing so reduces the risk of transmission to the community,” he said.

“However, in practice, maintaining infectious disease treatment centres within the city is the most effective approach to responding to outbreaks – much like having fire extinguishers and hydrants available on site.”

He said specialised infectious disease facilities are typically among the safest environments in terms of transmission risk, due to trained personnel, established protocols and infrastructure designed to contain infection while ensuring timely treatment.

Đạt cited Việt Nam’s handling of the 2003 SARS outbreak, when the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in central Hà Nội treated all patients successfully, without in-hospital transmission or wider community spread.

Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic also underscore the importance of early, on-site response. Concentrating a large number of cases in a single facility could strain resources, increase mortality risks and reduce the effectiveness of infection control, he said.

“If we concentrate too many infectious disease cases in one place, it may even increase mortality risk and the likelihood of outbreaks due to a lack of resource sharing and infection control,” he added.

In many developed countries, high-containment infectious disease units are located within major urban centres and equipped with negative-pressure isolation rooms. These systems are maintained even when there are no active cases, to ensure readiness.

Examples include dedicated isolation facilities operated by Japan’s Institute for Health Security in Tokyo and infectious disease units at Germany's Charité University Hospital in Berlin.

Đạt noted that Hà Nội’s large population, high density, rapid urbanisation and climate conditions create a favourable environment for the spread of infectious diseases, including dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease, measles and influenza.

He said relocating treatment facilities away from the city centre could delay access to care, potentially leading to undetected transmission and late identification of outbreaks.

Instead, he proposed strengthening infectious disease capacity across the health care system, including increased investment in infectious disease departments at general hospitals to enable early detection, classification and treatment of cases at the local level.

He also recommended establishing a specialised infectious disease centre in the capital, equipped with modern infrastructure like negative-pressure isolation rooms, to handle high-risk pathogens and support research.

Such measures, he said, would help ensure the capital’s health security while maintaining the ability to respond promptly to emerging outbreaks. VNS