HCM CITY — Hospitals in the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk are being improved dramatically to provide better care to locals to reduce the number of patients going to HCM City and other cities for treatment.

Dr Võ Minh Thành, deputy head of the Đắk Lắk Province General Hospital, said the hospital has received VNĐ340 billion (US$14.9 million) from the Government to buy high-tech equipment such as a digital-subtraction angiography (DSA) machine, MRI machine and others.  

The equipment have helped doctors diagnose and treat many severely ill patients who would have been transferred to hospitals in HCM City in the past, Thành said.  

His hospital’s cardiac intervention and emergency aid department is using the DSA machine for inserting stents to treat coronary artery disease and performing open heart surgeries, he said.

Last year alone the department’s doctors treated 704 people with cardiac diseases.

Dr Nguyễn Thiện Ái, the department’s head, said transferring such patients to Nha Trang or HCM City used to take six to 10 hours.

This time is considered the “golden” hour, which is vital for saving patients with heart diseases, he said.

Dr I Y Sil M’s lô Duôn Du, deputy head of the Buôn Hồ county town general hospital, said his hospital too has adopted many new techniques for treatment and diagnosis.

Its doctors, for instance, do new tests for diagnosis of infectious diseases at an early stage, he said.

Besides public funding, the province’s hospitals have also solicited investment from the private sector to buy more ultrasound machines, heart rate monitors, and equipment for endoscopic surgery and dialysis, according to hospitals.

Duôn Du said private investments have helped instal five dialysis machines and a reverse osmosis water purification system.

The hospital has provided dialysis on 1,700 occasions, helping save money for patients who otherwise would have had to travel to HCM City or other places, he said.

According to the Đắk Lắk Department of Health, facilities at all health stations in all 184 communes have been built or upgraded. IT is also increasingly used at all the centres, it said.

City-, district- and town-level hospitals sent their doctors to ward and commune health stations last year to teach personnel there new techniques, it said.

Health workers’ attitudes have been improved, and they are trained every year in communication skills, it said.

Health facilities around the province have installed clear signboards to guide visitors to various departments and rooms, it said.

Care givers have been hired to attend to patients, it added.

Doãn Hữu Long, the department’s head, said efforts would continue to introduce new diagnosis and treatment techniques to improve the quality of health examination and treatment at health facilities around the province.

Last year more than 3.8 million patients were treated at these facilities, whose use of beds reached 108.8 per cent of the year’s target.   

According to a report from the department, locals, especially ethnic minorities, have increased trust and satisfaction in the province’s health facilities. —VNS