A doctor at the Hà Nội Eye Hospital checks a child patient's eyes as part of the hospital's programme to provide free health check-ups in July. VNA/VNS Photo Dương Ngọc

Nguyễn Khắc Hiền, Director General of the Hà Nội Health Department, talks to Hà Nội Mới (New Hà Nội) newspaper on his department’s commitment to offering a better health service to the people

Can you explain Hà Nội’s efforts to develop an intelligent hospital system?

Most of the elite Vietnamese hospitals are located in Hà Nội. These hospitals are either under the management of the central Government or the Hà Nội authorities.

To attract more patients, the Hà Nội Medical Department has made efforts, in terms of both the human and financial resources, to make their services better to respond to patients’ needs. They have selected the three most important components to focus their investment in, namely infrastructure, technology and human resources. However, they have considered advanced technology in diagnosis as the spearhead mission, especially in the areas of gynecology, heart diseases, ulcers and plastic surgery.

The Hà Nội Hi-tech Centre for Gastronomy with use the 3D Pyrexar BSD-2000 [a machine to screen patients using 3D images] has become important for ulcer patients. As a result, Việt Nam has become the 5th country in the world to use the modern medical equipment for cancer treatment. In July 2019, the Đức Giang General Hospital also used robots in surgery for  people with curved backs. Currently, there are two hospitals in Hà Nội that solve the problem for people with curved backs – the Việt-Đức and the Đức Giang hospitals.

Can you talk more about the impact of Industry 4.0 on Hà Nội’s health sector?

It is indisputable that the Industry 4.0 has left a strong impact on the development of Vietnamese society and the medical sector. All hospitals and medical centres in Hà Nội have applied advanced information technology in their daily performance, including drug management, economics and more. For example, Đức Giang General Hospital has introduced online registration for health examination. Soon the Đức Giang Hospital will use fingerprints to keep track of their patients' health portfolio.

Few health clinics have launched a patients’ website to keep track of their treatment. When will patients’ websites will be used widely in Việt Nam?

At present, IT technology has been applied in 95 per cent of all drug stores nationwide and major pharmaceutical suppliers nationwide. This is good news for Việt Nam in its efforts to manage drug disbursement and drug use in the country. This is a solid foundation for the country to achieve better management and procedures in health examination quickly, yet effectively for patients. 

Do you have any comments on healthcare service quality in Hà Nội?

Hà Nội has achieved remarkable progress in the health service sector to the satisfaction of the people.

The municipal health department conducted a survey in 67 hospitals, public and private, to evaluate satisfaction with health service. Some 84.2 per cent of outpatients expressed satisfaction with the service they received, meanwhile 91.36 per cent of inpatients said they were happy with the service.

In 2019, Hà Nội has a total of 12,685 hospital beds – up 420 compared to previous years.

In the era of Industry 4.0, do you think the relationship between doctors and patients is a little bit looser than previously?

As we all know, the 4.0 revolution is just a product of humankind. Though their operation is super, robots cannot replace humans – the doctors and nurses. In medical service, patients and medical staff need to exchange ideas and thoughts. I think it is time for the doctor to adopt the idea that the patients are their clients/customers.

To have a friendly healthcare centre, what should the health workers do?

They have to improve their professional skills to catch up with the fast development of international medicine. However, high tech can’t replace doctors and nurses. The good relationship between physicians and patients is very important in the course of treatment. That’s why, these days the health service in Hà Nội has asked people in the health sector to consider patients as the centre of their service while adopting a new way of management, of job performance and friendly attitude towards the patients. — VNS