Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam speaks at the fourth national forum on hospital quality, held in Hà Nội yesterday. – VNA/VNS Photo Dương Ngọc

HÀ NỘI – Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam yesterday praised the health sector for its efforts in recent years to raise hospitals’ quality.

He was speaking at the fourth national forum on hospital quality, held in Ha Noi by the Ministry of Health and the EU delegation based in the city.

The health sector needs to build on its achievements in hospital quality evaluation, aiming for transparency in patients’ health records, examination and treatment procedures, according to Đam.

He also noted the importance of hospital autonomy, the expansion of health insurance coverage and the application of information technology in all healthcare activities.

“It’s also essential to foster the role of evaluation organisations and people in checking hospital quality because at the end of the day, patients’ satisfaction is what the health sector aims for,” Dam said.

Health Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến said in the past year, the ministry had issued several legal documents regarding hospital quality control and improvement, including a circular on hospital tests quality control, a circular guiding the management of health check-ups and treatment quality at hospitals and a decision adopting the national action programme on improving the capacity of check-ups and treatment. 

The ministry thus expected hospital quality would gradually but consistently improve, she said.

Lương Ngọc Khuê, head of the ministry’s Treatment and Examination Department, said breakthrough achievements had been made in hospitals nationwide in the past five years, thanks to the sector’s determination to change and aim for a patient-centred approach.

At the forum, participants also talked about opportunities and challenges in the context of hospital autonomy and financial mechanism reforms.

Participants also shared experiences in improving hospital quality according to criteria set by hospitals at all levels, experience in improving the examination process and application of information technology in medical examination, improving the quality of hospital toilets and strengthening hospital security and clinical nutrition.— VNS