Reducing hospital overcrowding must go hand in hand with improving the quality of treatment.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized this requirement during a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Health on the afternoon of March 4th, following two years of implementing the project to reduce hospital overcrowding.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and representatives from several relevant ministries and agencies.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized that reducing hospital overcrowding should not only be achieved through administrative solutions but must also go hand in hand with improving the quality of treatment.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien stated that after two years of implementing the Project, the health sector has invested in building new hospitals, renovating, upgrading, and expanding hospitals at all levels, adding tens of thousands of hospital beds, including over 15,000 beds at provincial and district-level hospitals. This has increased the ratio of actual hospital beds at all three levels from 24.7 beds per 10,000 people (in 2012) to 28.1 beds per 10,000 people (in 2014).

The opening of over 5,000 additional examination rooms, coupled with improved management and overall enhancement of hospital quality, and streamlined examination procedures, has saved society 27.2 million working days per year.

In addition, the health sector has developed and maintained an effective network of satellite hospitals with 14 core hospitals and 46 satellite hospitals in 37 provinces and cities; transferred 2,439 techniques from the central level to the provincial level; 3,299 techniques from the provincial level to the district level; and 8,073 techniques from the district level to the commune level, etc.; and promoted the implementation of the family doctor program and multi-specialty clinics.

Overcrowding in inpatient treatment areas has improved significantly: 58% of central and tertiary hospitals that previously had bed-sharing situations are now seeing a decrease; provincial hospitals also have a trend of reducing the number of departments with bed-sharing.

Many central-level hospitals are also reducing their bed occupancy rates, while conversely, 25% of district-level hospitals are showing an upward trend in bed occupancy rates… The referral rate has decreased by over 37%.

Besides the initial positive results and the right direction, Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien acknowledged that there are still many difficulties and challenges in reducing hospital overcrowding as the demand for medical examination and treatment continues to increase and disease patterns change significantly. Many central and tertiary hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City are severely overloaded due to their small size, lack of specialized hospitals, limited geographical space, and lack of upgrades and expansions. Hospital autonomy is uneven among hospitals and localities. The quality of medical expertise at the lower levels remains limited. Meanwhile, investment capital for upgrading, expanding, and building new hospitals is slow and insufficient compared to the needs.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam assessed that in the past period, the Ministry of Health has actively and effectively implemented many solutions to reduce the burden on hospitals without using the budget or increasing staff, such as developing criteria for evaluating hospital quality, classifying services, and providing treatment guidelines.

The Deputy Prime Minister stated that in the coming period, it is necessary to strongly encourage private investment, linkages, and the socialization of clinics, medical facilities, and hospitals; allowing, or even requiring, public hospitals to become more autonomous, and accelerating the implementation of a payment mechanism for medical examination and treatment services that accurately and fully reflects the cost of medical services.

The scene at the meeting.

Based on the opinions expressed at the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized: "Reducing overcrowding solely through administrative measures without simultaneously improving the quality of medical examination and treatment at all levels will not meet the requirements."

In this spirit, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung requested the Ministry of Health to continue increasing the number of hospital beds at central-level hospitals specializing in pediatrics, oncology, obstetrics, orthopedics, and cardiology.

The Prime Minister affirmed that the Government is creating favorable conditions, providing preferential loans with low interest rates, and implementing fee collection mechanisms to encourage investment in the construction of central-level hospitals that have been approved by the Prime Minister.

The Ministry of Health is tasked with coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to clearly identify central-level and tertiary hospitals that need new construction investment during the 2016-2020 period, along with calculating and clearly identifying funding sources and investment phasing. This will not only help alleviate hospital overcrowding but also meet the increasing demand for specialized medical examination and treatment from the people and become centers for training and transferring high-tech techniques to lower-level hospitals.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also requested the Ministry of Health and localities to resolutely develop more core hospitals, satellite hospitals, and satellite departments, along with implementing synchronized measures such as strengthening on-site training, sending doctors to grassroots levels, increasing the number of examination rooms, promoting the implementation of the family doctor program, completing the commune health network nationwide, and continuing to focus on administrative procedure reform associated with improving the quality of medical examination and treatment…

According to Chinhphu.vn