Allow bank loans for purchasing and construction at public hospitals

At the meeting, members of the Provincial People's Committee heard a report summarizing 1 year of implementing the project to develop health care work towards socialization in Decision 813/2017 of the Provincial People's Committee.

Accordingly, after 1 year of implementation, the Project has yielded many good results, specifically: 22/35 public hospitals have implemented socialization, with the implementation of 12 projects, installing 42 machines with a total cost of more than 73 billion VND. Some units have built infrastructure and medical clinics according to specific requirements.

Leaders of Nghe An Department of Health presented a plan to borrow capital from the bank. Photo: Thanh Chung

Currently, Nghe An has 11 non-public hospitals, ranking 3rd in the country. In 2017, these hospitals invested more than 300 billion VND to build facilities and invested 72 billion VND to buy 479 pieces of equipment; examined and treated over 600 thousand patients, accounting for 11% of the total number of patients in the province.

In addition to the positive aspects, the current socialization of health care faces many difficulties and shortcomings, especially in the public sector. Socialization in public facilities currently includes forms of joint ventures, partnerships, capital contributions, equipment rental, chemical vending machines... which are exposing many loopholes, affecting the development of technical services, leaning towards profit, less towards social welfare. Many forms of socialization are being "whistled" by the Vietnam Social Security for not allowing payment, or being requested to stop by the Ministry of Health.

Many services and machines from socialized sources are having their health insurance payments stopped due to their heavy emphasis on profit-making factors. Photo: Thanh Chung

To improve the current health social activities, as well as to have funds to implement the project (currently the project needs 1,097 billion VND to implement but the budget is not enough to spend), after studying the reality in Phu Tho province and Ho Chi Minh City, Nghe An Department of Health proposed a plan to borrow capital from banks to build facilities and purchase medical equipment.

At the meeting, members of the Committee and representatives of departments and branches had many constructive comments. Agreeing with the comments, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong stated: Agreeing with the policy of allowing bank loans to build and purchase equipment at public hospitals.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong agreed with the plan to prioritize socialized healthcare by borrowing capital from credit institutions. Photo: Thanh Chung

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong emphasized: To get a loan, hospitals must develop a loan project, which must include full content: What is the loan for? Who is the guarantor? Ability to repay the debt? The hospital director must act as a legal entity to sign the loan. The project must be carefully reviewed by the Department of Health and related departments before being submitted to the Provincial People's Committee for approval. After construction and procurement, hospitals must submit to the Department of Finance and related departments to develop technical service prices in accordance with the Law on Prices.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong requested the Department of Health and the Provincial People's Committee Office to complete the report with solutions for socializing healthcare by borrowing capital from banks to present to the Provincial Party Standing Committee at the upcoming meeting.