Ministry urges establishment of gerontology faculties in hospitals

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Health Ministry has instructed hospitals under its control
and specialised clinics to establish gerontology faculties with a view to improving
for elderly people.

Despatch
No 2244/BYT-KCB requests Health Department of provinces and centrally-run
cities to draft criteria for gerontology faculties at hospitals at provincial
and municipal level.

Meanwhile,
hospitals under the Health Ministry’s direct management and specialised
hospitals, except children’s hospitals, follow the criteria set by the
ministry.

Depending
on each ’s scale, the gerontology faculties should account for at
least 10 percent of the hospital’s beds but should not be less than 30 beds.

The
Health Ministry’s instruction also recommends hospitals designate functional rehabilitation
space of at least 30 sqm exclusively for elderly patients. In case a hospital
cannot afford exclusive space, it should coordinate the work of the gerontology and functional rehabilitation faculties
to ensure that elderly patients being cared for at the gerontology faculty can receive rehabilitation
treatment.

Vietnam
officially entered the phase of aging population in 2011. The country currently
has around 10.1 million elderly people 60 years old and above, or 11 percent of
the population, of whom 2 million are at least 80 years old.

It
is forecast that the ratio of elderly people in the population is expected to rise
to 18 percent in 2030 and 26 percent in 2050.

The
Health Ministry approved a national action plan on health care for the elderly
in December 2016, which aimed to improve health outcomes for older people in
the 2017-25 period.

Experts
said geriatric care in Vietnam faces a range of difficulties. An increasing
number of older patients put an ever-growing burden on the already struggling
healthcare fund. Most diseases that afflict older people are chronic and
non-communicable, requiring frequent check-ups, constant monitoring and
medications.

The
geriatric healthcare component in the general healthcare system has not caught
up with the drastic demographic change.

The
action plan aims to remedy this critical shortage by requiring that all
city-level and provincial-level hospitals have .

Currently,
throughout the country, only 49 out of 69 city-level and provincial-level
hospitals have gerontology faculties, and only three institutes offer
gerontology studies.

According
to the plan, authorities at all levels will need to make sure that 100 percent
of have health insurance cards by 2025, and that 80 percent
receive at least one medical check-up a year and maintain up-to-date health
profiles.-VNA