The Vietnam Association of Financial Investors (VAFI) has proposed that the privatise State-owned hospitals to reform the healthcare system and improve the quality of healthcare services. (Photo: tuyengiao.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – The
() has proposed that the Prime Minister privatise to
reform the healthcare system and improve the quality of health care services.
According to VAFI, the Government needs to implement changes in three stages to
improve the quality of the country’s public health care services.
The first stage is to transform all the State-owned hospitals from a public to
business organisation, and operate in accordance with the Law of Enterprises,
VAFI said in its proposal.
“The State-owned hospitals have to publicise their financial reports, business
operations and must be audited annually like listed companies, and each must be
run by a management board and a supervisory board,” the VAFI said.
To help them operate safely and efficiently, and avoid bankruptcy and
dissolution, the Government must set a limit on the total loans provided to
these hospitals, which will permit their borrowings to not exceed 50 percent of
their ownership equity, it said.
The second stage is to equitise the largest hospitals, such as Bach Mai, Viet
Duc and Cho Ray hospitals, the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
and those that volunteer to be equitised.
“These hospitals should be listed on the stock market, so that their business
operations are transparent and public; thus, they will be able to raise capital
from the securities market.”
In the third stage, these hospitals should acquire the smaller ones that are
located in the surrounding provinces and districts, and become parent
hospitals, VAFI added.
The plan is to turn the current hospitals into corporations in which the
Government holds more than 65 percent of their charter capital and set up their
branches at the district level.
People who reside in the urban and countryside areas can visit the branches of
these hospitals in their local areas, instead of struggling to go to the big
cities for health care services, according to the association.
According to the association, the Government has had a lot of policies to
improve the quality of the healthcare service sector, such as disbursing a huge
amount of State budget to the public hospitals to improve their operations,
raising more capital from the private sector and the society, and building
satellite hospitals to reduce the large number of patients visiting central
hospitals.
These policies have improved the quality of public hospitals by equipping them
with advanced machines, and enhancing the profession of doctors and nurses
working in these hospitals.
However, both patients and hospitals have been facing difficulties in the
recent years, which have not been resolved or improved, the VAFI said.
The hospitals have spent a lot to purchase machines and equipment, but the
equality of the purchased products is not good enough, resulting in relative
increase in fees and loss to the State budget.
Patients have to pay “unofficial fees”, besides the official ones to please the
doctors and nurses, to get good quality health care services. Meanwhile, the
employees in the hospitals have been underperforming, as they receive low
salary, while the management of the hospitals is not efficient.
In addition to this, the overload of patients at the central hospitals in big
cities, such as Hanoi and HCM City, shows that there is a big gap in the
quality and professionalism of district-level and city-level doctors and
nurses, VAFI said.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
