Patients at the HCM City Oncology Hospital. (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – By 2020, HCM City’s public hospitals will no longer be overloaded
and people will have access to high-quality health care, municipal officials
promise.
The entire health care
sector will become a high-quality service industry by then, contributing
significantly to the city’s socio-economic growth, Nguyen Tan Binh, Director of
the local Department of Health, said.
To achieve this
target, greater autonomy will be provided to public hospitals, reducing the
financial pressure on the government, he told a meeting with city leaders last
week.
Eighty two hospitals
have been granted autonomy since the city began implementing this policy in
2006, he said.
Of them, 10 manage
to mobilise all the revenues they need to operate while the remaining partly
fund themselves, he said.
Their autonomy has
seen them hire skilled medical professionals as well as improve facilities,
equipment and the quality of care, he said.
Besides this, he
said, the health sector has also increased investment in health care
infrastructure and medical technologies, including through public-private
partnerships and low-interest rate borrowing.
As many as 16
projects worth a total of 13.5 trillion VND (597.34 million USD) have been
undertaken in the past 10 years under the public-private partnership model, he
said.
Ninety one others
were funded by low-interest loans worth a total of 3.93 trillion VND (173.89
million USD), and these include construction of new hospitals, expansion of
existing ones, and purchase of medical equipment, he said.
Many new hospitals
are being built to reduce hospital overloading, including Cho Ray Hospital
No.2, Hospital 175, Thong Nhat Hospital, Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University
Centre, and Trauma and Orthopedic Hospital.
Dinh La Thang, Secretary
of the city Party Committee, said more autonomy should be given to public
hospitals to improve the quality of care and patients’ satisfaction.
The health sector
should focus on easing the load on hospitals and improving the quality of care
by 2020, he added.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
