Ministry steps up efforts to ease patient overload in hospitals
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.
Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry ofHealth has synchronously implemented measures to ease patient overload inhospitals over the past five years, contributing to improving the quality ofhealth check-ups and treatment, said Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.
The ministry reported that after thefive-year implementation of the project on reducing hospital overload during2015-2017, procedures for medical check-ups and treatment have been cut from 12-14 steps to 4-8 steps, helpingsave 27.2 million working days each year.
The health sector has also built andupgraded many hospitals and increased the rate of sick-beds per 10,000 people from24.7 in 2012 to 31.4 in 2015 and 32.7 in 2016. As many as 37 out of 39 central hospitalshave committed to having no cases of sharing bed in the first 24-48 hours ofhospital admission of patients.
At the same time, the ministry has made thebest use of 17 central hospitals and 75 satellite hospitals in cities and provinces,while maintaining training courses and technical transfer for staff fromgrassroots hospitals.
Minister Tien said apart from satellitehospitals, the health sector has piloted the family doctor model, completed thenetwork of communal medical centres and intensified preventive medicine.
She, however, pointed out patient overloadin several central hospitals, and material facilities and human resourcesfailing to meet public demands for health care.
The sector aims to basically deal withpatient overload in hospitals by 2020, she said, adding that all hospitals atthe central, municipal and provincial levels in major cities like Hanoi and HoChi Minh City are expected to promise to put an end to bed sharing in 2018.
All provincial hospitals are also set tojoin the satellite hospital project and benefit from technical transfer, sheadded.-VNA
The Ministry of Health put much effort into developing medical infrastructure throughout 2015, with a view to easing hospital overload and improving examination and treatment quality.
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Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) 
