Promoting information technology to prevent negativity and waste in the medical industry

(Baonghean.vn) - Promoting information technology to prevent negativity and waste in the medical sector is one of the contents that the Prime Minister directed at the online conference on implementing medical work in 2017 organized by the Ministry of Health on the afternoon of January 12.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien chaired the Conference; Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Minh Thong chaired the Nghe An bridge point.

There are 63 provincial and municipal bridges and more than 700 district, town and city bridges participating in the conference with about 12,000 delegates.

Nghe An bridge attended the online conference. Photo: Thanh Chung

In 2016, the Vietnamese health sector had 10 important milestones, which are: Innovation towards patient satisfaction has created a clear change in hospitals, the mindset of "serving" has shifted to "providing services" which has initially been highly appreciated by the people; Successful production of the combined measles-rubella vaccine and is expected to be included in the expanded immunization program from 2017.

For the first time in Vietnam, robotic laparoscopic surgery was performed for adults; There were more than 30 cases of surrogacy... The rate of population participating in health insurance reached 81.7%; 25 hospital beds per 10,000 people (excluding the number of hospital beds at commune health stations) were achieved, exceeding the target set by the National Assembly and the Government.

Innovation in service style and attitude of medical staff at Vinh City General Hospital. Photo: Document

During the year, the incidence and mortality rates due to infectious diseases decreased compared to 2015, with no major epidemics occurring; The expanded vaccination rate for children under 1 year old, pregnant women, and women of childbearing age reached over 90%; The HIV/AIDS infection rate in the community was controlled at less than 0.3% and the number of new infections was reduced; The number of cases, the number of infected people, and the number of deaths due to food poisoning was reduced.

The sector has expanded its satellite hospital network to all 63 provinces and cities with 22 core hospitals and 98 satellite hospitals; completed the pilot family doctor model and started to replicate it nationwide.

Nghe An Oncology Hospital performs new technique - Endoscopic thyroid surgery. Photo: Document

Besides the successes, the health care system still fails to meet the people's needs: Lack of health care facilities for the elderly, non-communicable diseases, and biomedical research facilities; The implementation of the provincial disease control center model and the dual-function district health center model is still slow.

In addition, investment in primary health care and the quality of medical services at lower-level health facilities have not been improved; The rate of health insurance examination and treatment expenditure at the commune level is still low; Some infectious diseases are still prevalent at high levels...etc.

Propagating breastfeeding, nutrition, and expanded immunization for people in Quy Chau district. Photo: Archive

In 2017, the Ministry of Health continued to strengthen state management; closely coordinated with the People's Committees of provinces and cities to implement "Innovation in the style and service attitude of medical staff towards patient satisfaction"; Proactively prevent and control epidemics, prevent major epidemics from occurring, maintain the expanded vaccination rate above 90%; strictly implement solutions to ensure food safety.

Spraying to prevent dengue fever in Hung Nguyen district. Photo: Archive

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised and highly appreciated the efforts of health sector staff in carrying out the responsibility of protecting and caring for people's health, making great contributions to the overall success of the country and the whole society.

The Prime Minister also pointed out the current weaknesses and shortcomings of the medical sector, which are: The overload situation in hospitals has not been well resolved; There are still many unfortunate and heartbreaking incidents related to the process and capacity of doctors and nurses; Hospital management is still inadequate; Administrative reform in medical examination and treatment has not met requirements; Management of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment is still inadequate, group interests cause great losses; Poor management of the health insurance fund; Food safety has not met requirements; The district-level medical model is not unified; A small part of the medical sector is indifferent to the pain of patients...

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc suggested: The health sector needs to actively innovate its thinking and working methods to provide better services to the people. The focus must be on grassroots health care with the goal of taking care of the health of each person, paying attention to supporting the poor and people in remote areas.

Accordingly, the health sector needs to focus on strengthening the grassroots health network and primary health care; Directing the promotion of activities to fully perform functions and tasks; Promoting the transfer of techniques, continuous training, practical training, and professional guidance for grassroots health. Implementing a two-way rotation regime suitable to the conditions of each locality; Implementing military-civilian medical cooperation... Thereby, contributing to the effective implementation of solutions to reduce overload at upper-level hospitals.

The need to further promote the application of information technology to combat negativity and waste in the medical sector is one of the contents emphasized by the Prime Minister at the meeting on the afternoon of January 12.

The Prime Minister emphasized: the health sector needs to publicize the results of hospital evaluation so that insurance agencies and people can know and choose; Direct hospitals to connect to recognize each other's test and imaging results; Coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to focus on building and perfecting a comprehensive innovation model for training general practitioners, nurses and pharmacists towards regional and international integration - Provide good human resources for mountainous, border and island areas; Improve the quality of health services, coordinate with Vietnam Social Security to effectively implement the roadmap for universal health insurance; Promote the implementation of information technology to combat negativity and waste.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has posed 12 questions to the medical sector. These are suggestive questions for the medical sector to study and implement in order to propose solutions to improve the quality of all aspects of public health care./.

Thanh Son