HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Health has turned to technology to keep tabs on private health facilities after many were found flouting regulations, including frequently changing doctors without its say-so.

Many doctors work at multiple private hospitals, which is against the rules, it said.

Besides, foreign doctors work at private health facilities without registering or in areas outside their speciality, often resulting in malpractice.

Department inspectors have checked and found many facilities violating regulations.

On June 29, for instance, the department named 36 private health facilities for violating regulations, including hiring doctors without a licence to practice.

It fined them VNĐ484 million (US$21,500).

It is expected that a new software to monitor private facilities will link the department’s various agencies very soon.

It will also help health facilities access information about doctors for hiring and enable the public to easily search for information about health facilities.

In fact, the software will help manage personnel in the entire healthcare sector, including public facilities.

The department is in the process of uploading information about licensed doctors and 4,300 operating licences issued to health facilities.

This is part of a process to create “smart health” in the city.

HCM City has 195 private general health clinics, 323 traditional medicine clinics and 42 private hospitals.

In the first half of this year the number of patients visiting the general health clinics increased by more than 10 per cent year-on-year and accounted for 6.7 per cent of the total number of patients in the city.

The department appreciated their contribution to healthcare and to reducing the pressure on public hospitals.

They have adequate infrastructure, equipment and personnel as well as technical capabilities, it said.

It recently issued 21 criteria to assess the quality of general health clinics while awaiting similar criteria from the Ministry of Health.

They enable the private facilities to fix their shortcomings before department inspectors turn up. — VNS