Ho Chi Minh City strives for 18 doctors per 10,000 residents
Ho Chi Minh City has set a target of having 18 doctors and 42 hospital beds per 10,000 residents in 2018 so as to increase the quality of health check-ups and treatment.
At District 2 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Source: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City has set a target of having 18doctors and 42 hospital beds per 10,000 residents in 2018 so as to increase thequality of health check-ups and treatment.
The goal was announced by Deputy Director of the municipalDepartment of Health Tang Chi Thuong at a conference on March 6 to kick startthe sector’s main tasks this year.
According to Thuong, the municipal health sector also aimsto have all medical stations at the ward and communal levels staffed with doctorsand meet national requirements on health care, 85.2 percent of the populationcovered by health insurance, and over 95 percent of infants under 1 vaccinated.
The sector will take initiative to prevent diseases in orderto minimise the number of cases contracting diseases and the fatality rate.
Extra efforts will be made to inaugurate the Ho Chi MinhCity Hospital of Paediatrics in March and put the second facility of the municipalOncology Hospital into operation in December.
The sector will also work to speed up construction ongeneral hospitals in Hoc Mon, Cu Chi and Thu Duc districts, the Hospital forTraumatology and Orthopaedics, and the second facility of the Pham Ngoc Thach Universityof Medicine.
Vice Chairwoman of the municipal People’s Committee NguyenThi Thu spoke highly of the achievements gained by the sector, including a 13.5percent decrease in the incidence of hand-foot-mouth disease and a 11.7 percentfall in the number of dengue fever cases hospitalised.
Last year, the city had 17 doctors and 40 hospital beds per10,000 residents. Hospitals at the district level were capable of serving over10,000 patients per day.
Thu expressed her hope that in the future, the city willmake a health record for each citizen covering their entire life from the wombto the tomb.
This will be one of the breakthroughs of the city to changethe relationship between the health sector and the public, she stressed.-VNA
The Ministry of Health has synchronously implemented measures to ease patient overload in hospitals over the past five years, contributing to improving the quality of health check-ups and treatment, said Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.
Medical services at the grassroots level help save costs and ensure sustainability in healthcare, contributing to the improvement of medical service quality, according to the Ministry of Health.
Vietnam now boasts a nationwide healthcare network with 1,665 hospitals, 384 of which are non-public, supported by local commune- and ward-level stations. At the end of 2024, hospital bed capacity reached 34 per 10,000 people, slightly above the global average.
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The centre not only serves residents living on the island, but also receives tens of thousands of visitors every year, according to Assoc Prof Dr Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the HCM CIty Department of Health.
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At District 2 Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Source: VNA) 
