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HCMC health sector tasked to turn the city into center of high-quality medical services |
Vice Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee Duong Anh Duc expected the health sector to continue to develop its strength for achieving the task in 2023 - turning the southern largest city into a center of high-quality medical services of the region as the city Party Congress’ Resolution.
On the afternoon of January 5, the Department of Health held a conference to implement key tasks in 2023 of the industry.
Reporting at the conference, Assoc. Prof. Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that if 2021 is the year when the health sector mobilized all staff for the fight against the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic in history. In 2022, the city's health sector continued to face many difficulties left by the pandemic such as healthcare workers in public facilities quitting jobs, reduced revenue of autonomous hospitals, and degraded infrastructure of some city hospitals.
In 2023, the health sector identified 10 specific focus groups such as the effective implementation of epidemic prevention, care and management of non-communicable diseases in the community; strengthening and improving the capacity of the city Center for Disease Control, research and developing a project to develop a network of community health collaborators in the city.
Moreover, the sector will effectively implement digital transformation activities, enhance IT applications towards building smart healthcare, and complete and start the implementation of the Project on Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry in Ho Chi Minh City to 2030, with a vision to 2045.
In addition, the sector will develop a trial project on policies to help stabilize human resources, a pilot scheme on mechanisms and policies to help stabilize autonomy in public hospitals under the Department of Health.
Furthermore, it will develop and submit the project of the City's high-tech early screening and diagnosis center and a project to strengthen and develop the network of emergency stations outside the hospital to the municipal People's Committee for approval.
Last but not least, the sector will develop and implement activities to improve the health capacity of Can Gio outlying district as well as step up reform of administrative procedures in the provision of public services of the city's health sector, speed up the construction of the health sector's infrastructure, strengthen the inspection and examination of medical practice in private establishments and impose sanctions to rectify illegal advertising activities.
According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thoa, Head of the Medical Faculty of the Department of Health, the project of establishing a high-tech early screening and diagnosis center is a key activity in 2023 of the industry and an important piece of a specialized medical center of the ASEAN region.
The center will meet the health care needs of city dwellers and the southern region with the aim to reduce the number of people going abroad for medical treatment and attract tourists and working foreigners and living in Vietnam who use health care services in the city. The center is expected to contribute to the development of medical tourism.
The center will operate under the model of a "hospital of the day specializing in health checks" to detect many different diseases early, especially cancer. The center is equipped with high diagnostic equipment such as CT scan, and PET/CT to help detect cancer early, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) helps to early detect lesions in the brain, eyeballs, spine diseases, detect benign and malignant tumors in organs in the body, solve gene sequence, said Dr. Nguyen Thi Thoa.
In addition, the High-tech Screening and Early Diagnosis Center also uses many different testing techniques to make a detailed assessment of the current health status of customers, and check a patient's health history; thereby, doctors can advise on lifestyle to maintain health in the best possible state, advice on diseases caused by lifestyle such as hypertension, diabetes, metabolic disorders lipoproteins, obesity and ways to prevent chronic non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, memory loss.
The center will closely link with the city's general and specialized hospitals in organizing health care services for residents.
According to Mr. Duong Anh Duc, the health sector must pioneer in digital transformation, the application of science and technology, and the application of the latest achievements of information and communication technology of various science and technology to improve labor productivity and improve service efficiency.
He emphasized that in 2023, the health sector, together with other departments and agencies must build new facilities, especially the city's three gateway hospitals and purchase specialized equipment to put these hospitals into use. Mr. Duong Anh Duc asked the health sector to cooperate with the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine to use high-quality human resources.
