The HCM City health sector is focused on increasing the number of doctors and hospital beds per 10,000 population to 18 and 42 this year, a health official said, from last year’s figure of 17 doctors and 40 beds.

The HCM City Paediatrics Hospital in Binh Chanh District.

Tang Chi Thuong, deputy director of the Department of Health, also said the city plans to have 85.2 per cent of the population covered by health insurance this year.

More than 95 per cent of children under one would get vaccinated, he told a conference on the health sector’s targets held on Tuesday.

Efforts would be made to reduce the mortality and infection rates from epidemics, improve grassroots health facilities and adopt advanced medical technologies, he said.

Nguyen Thi Thu, deputy chairwoman of the city People’s Committee, instructed the healthcare sector to create a database of personal health records so that people can track their health status since they are born.

In the first phase it could be trialled in some districts and communes, she said.

Many public hospitals would be granted financial and managerial autonomy this year as part of efforts to reform the administration of public hospitals, she said.

Last year medical facilities in the city handled more than 42 million patients, according to a report released by the Department of Health.

The number of hand, foot and mouth disease and dengue fever cases fell by 13.5 per cent and 11.7 per cent from the previous year, the report showed. —VNS