Deputy director of HCM City’s Department of Health Tăng Chí Thượng speaks to Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper about this year’s plans for the city’s health sector.

What are new health projects the city has planned this year to improve the quality of health services and treatment?

This year the second branch of the HCM City Oncology Hospital will be opened. The 1,000-bed hospital meeting international standards will help reduce the severe patient overload at the current Oncology Hospital in Bình Thạnh District.

Construction of three new hospitals is expected to begin this year, Hóc Môn General Hospital, Thủ Đức General Hospital and Củ Chi General Hospital.

When they open, they will admit patients from the city and neighbouring provinces, resulting in a reduction of patients at central hospitals in the city.

This year the city authorities will take over the Transportation Hospital from the Ministry of Transport. The Department of Health will consult the city People’s Committee and use it as a second branch of the Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics.

Many hospitals in the city such as Bình An Hospital, Trưng Vương Hospital, Gia Định People’s Hospital, Nguyễn Trãi Hospital, Bình Dân Hospital and Heart Hospital will get new buildings for examination and treatment.

The Tân Kiên medical cluster in Bình Chánh District will soon have new medical facilities such as the Blood Transfusion Hematology Hospital and the second branch of the Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine.

Construction of new medical facilities aside, what will the health sector do to improve the quality of care at health facilities?

The Department of Health will upgrade 24 health stations in the city to improve primary healthcare in keeping with family medicine principles and managing the personal health records of people.

Many innovative healthcare models will be scaled up, such as clinics operated by district-level hospitals at commune and ward stations, satellite stations for the 115 emergency service, the inter-hospital red alert and motorcycle ambulance service.

This year the department launched the Healthcare Award with the theme ‘smart healthcare’ to encourage hospitals to speed up the application of advanced medical technologies and treatments.

What does the health sector plan do to prevent the spread of infectious diseases that have emerged in the last few years?

The city People’s Committee has approved the merger of seven preventive medicine centres into the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to utilise co-ordination between the centres for the prevention of infectious and non-communicable diseases.

Effective preventive medicine will result in the reduction of diseases and patient overload at hospitals.

The new office of the CDC will open this year in District 8.

What will the health sector do this year to ensure patients are satisfied with healthcare services?

Public hospitals in HCM City have to implement financial and managerial autonomy and it is essential for them to improve healthcare services to satisfy patients.

The department will conduct surveys on the experience of inpatients while it will continue to survey outpatients about healthcare services and treatment as well as the attitude of healthcare workers.

The surveys will help hospitals get comprehensive information about patients’ experience and take measures to improve their services and treatments. — VNS