Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has said that central hospitals in big cities are seriously overloaded with too many patients from districts and provinces, but the matter cannot be resolved overnight.
In an online dialogue with patients and people on January 7, Minister Tien pointed to the fact that two or three patients, sometimes more, have to share a bed.
The overload is the worst at cardio vascular, cancer, pediatrics and functional rehabilitation hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Many developed countries are also confronted with a similar problem, said Tien.
Although the health sector has increased the number of hospital beds, simplified administrative procedures, opened more private hospitals and transferred technology to district and commune hospitals, the overload has not yet been eased, said Tien.
According to the Minister, the ratio of hospital beds in Vietnam, 20.5 per 10,000 people, is rather low compared to the 33 considered the minimum under the World Health Organisation (WHO), 86 in the Republic of Korea and 140 in Japan.
She admitted that Vietnam still lacks medical workers at district levels and remote areas despite incentives offered by the health sector.
Most medical university graduates want to stay in big cities and it is difficult to attract them to work at medical centres in districts and far-flung regions, Tien confided.
She went on to say that investment in grassroots level medical centres remains modest due to limited budgets and it is hard to mobilize capital from outside sources for healthcare development projects.
Higher living standards also enable people to move to big cities for treatment where specialized hospitals are equipped with modern facilities and highly skilled doctors.
Solving this chronic problem requires the joint efforts of relevant ministries and people, not only the Ministry of Health, said Tien.
She said the Ministry of Health is drafting a project aimed at easing hospital overload and submitting it to the Government for consideration. Major solutions include increasing the number of hospital beds, building more hospitals, enhancing the capacity of local medical centres, and developing a network of family doctors.
Source: VOV