HCM CITY — As part of the healthcare programme Care for Tết 2017, HCM City doctors have been offering free health exams to residents in the city and neighbouring provinces of Bình Phước, Đồng Nai and Tây Ninh as well as to soldiers stationed at border areas.

Doctors at the city’s Traditional Medicine Institute in Phú Nhuận District on Sunday started providing free health exams, ultrasounds and electrocardiograms to poor patients.

Many of the patients said they seldom visited hospitals for exams, even though some of them suffer from various kinds of ailments.

Nguyễn Minh Trí, 56, of the district, said: “I haven’t been able to hold anything in my left hand over the last several months. However, I haven’t gone to a hospital.”

Dr Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, deputy head of the institute’s Oncology Ward, examined Trí, who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day.

Anh said that Trí could be at risk of atherosclerosis in which plaque builds up inside arteries, hardening and narrowing the arteries and limiting the flow of oxygen-rich blood.

As atherosclerosis can cause serious complications such as a stroke or heart attack, Anh scheduled an electrocardiogram for Trí.

Another patient, Nguyễn Hồng Thắm, 60, who also lives in the district, has had allergic rhinitis for many years.

“However, I haven’t had time for examination and treatment. Several days ago, I was told to go to the institute for a free exam. The institute’s doctor advised me to get thread embedding, which is a kind of acupuncture therapy, to treat allergic rhinitis,” Thắm said.

The threads, which eventually dissolve, are embedded into acupuncture points to stimulate them for 10-14 days.

“The free examination programme shows care for the poor and for seniors before Lunar New Year. It’s very useful for us,” Thắm said.

After the exams, the patients were provided gifts worth VNĐ1 million (US$44) each. The institute also presented gifts to 30 poor inpatients last Sunday.

From January 27-30, inpatients will be provided free three meals every day.

On January 14, doctors and nurses at many city hospitals visited Bình Phước Province, the Xa Mát border gate in Tây Ninh, and Đồng Nai Province to care for people with financial difficulties.

Health workers at Nhân Ái, Từ Dũ and Paediatrics hospitals provided free medicine and health examination to 150 children, poor residents, and those covered by special State policies that live in Phú Văn Commune in Bình Phước Province.

The team, including doctors and nurses from Củ Chi and Thủ Đức general hospitals and Oncology Hospital, visited Tân Lập District in Tây Ninh Province offered free exams and medicine for 500 poor people there.

They also presented gifts to soldiers stationed at border gates. —VNS