People waiting for check-up at Trung Vuong Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: VNA)sector as public hospitals and clinics cannot meet the demand across
the country, experts have said.
More than 170 hospitals and 30,000 health clinics and other health
establishments are privately run, with nearly 15 percent of the country’s total
hospital beds, a Ministry of Health report released last year said.
The proportion of patients visiting private health facilities was only 6-7 percent.
Other countries in Asia have a higher ratio of private hospital beds, with
Indonesia having 37 percent of its beds in private facilities and Thailand 24
percent, Professor Pham Manh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Social Medical
Association, said on the association’s website.
Dr Vo Xuan Son, director of EXSON International Clinic in HCM City, said that
private health facilities had not developed well because the Government had not
issued many preferential policies or benefits for them.
Son said some private hospitals had invested a great deal in their facilities,
but this had contributed to higher hospital fees. As a result, some of them
have closed.
An Khang International General Hospital had to close because its turnover could
not cover expenditures for medicine, human resources and other fees related to
operations.
To attract patients, many private health facilities have signed contracts to
admit patients with health insurance. In these cases, insured patients visited
private health facilities and paid lower fees.
By 2020, more than 90 percent of its population is expected to have health
insurance.
However, Son said that it was difficult to sign contracts with the Social
Insurance Agency.
The regulation on allowing doctors of public hospitals to work at private
health facilities after official working hours has not led to favourable
conditions for private facilities, he added.
In many other countries, a doctor can work at two or more hospitals during
official working hours, Son said.
Truong Vinh Long, general director at Hoa Lam International Hospital Co.Ltd,
said: “It is a waste of human resources in the health sector.”
“Investment in the health sector has higher risks than in other sectors. For
instance, a fault in production can be acceptable except the health sector. But
a high price has to be paid in the health sector for mistakes,” Long said.
Investors must look at the long term and “reduce inessential expenditures to
maintain operation in the first few years,” he said.
Long said that the were the key to develop private health facilities as
they typically have modern facilities and professional governance.
Public health facilities have advantages such as a brand name, doctors with
high qualifications, and a large number of patients, he added.
Private and public health facilities can work together and take advantage of
their respective strengths, he said.
The Government has issued policies and decrees for PPPs, but the regulations
need to be more specific in how to carry out the PPPs, he added.
Private health facilities should develop in fields where public hospitals have
not specialised, he said.
At a meeting held early this year reviewing the health sector, Prime Minister
Nguyen Xuan Phuc urged speedier development of the , particularly
because of limited state funds.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
