VietNamNet Bridge – According to a research work by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Hanoi and HCM City in 2010, 1.47 percent of interviewees in Hanoi and 3.77 percent in HCM City said they didn’t go to hospital for examination because they didn’t have money.

Ly Ngoc Kinh, former Chief of the Health Examination Management Department under the Health Ministry and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Health Economic Science Association, said that there is a paradox in Vietnam: Most patients are poor people but they also use healthcare services less than others. Around 40 percent of the poor patients don’t get any treatment because they don’t have money.

This shows that is the finance is the biggest hindrance for the poor. Many people have to live with uncured diseases. VietNamNet will publish a series about pitiful plights that need our readers’ help.

People that need community assistance

While everyone is preparing to welcome the lunar New Year holiday (Tet), there are many who have never enjoyed a Tet. They are poor patients or children who suffer from inborn diseases, who don’t even know whether they will wake up the following day.

VietNamNet has recently received a letter from the neighbors of Mr. Ly Duc Tri, 59, from Xuan Thoi Thuong Commune, Hoc Mon district, HCM City, asking for help for Mr. Tri, who is in an extremely difficult situation.

VietNamNet reporters went to the People’s Hospital 115 in HCM City to visit Mr. Tri. However, we could not see him because he was in the special treatment room.

Doctor Duong Quang Thao, who directly worked with Tri, told VietNamNet that because Tri had been born with a hunchback, his lungs wereaffected . The man contracted a serious pneumonia which caused a respiratory failure. He couldn’t live with a respiratory machine so he had to stay in hospital for a long time.

A financial staff from the hospital said that though part of Tri’s hospital fees was paid by health insurance agency, he had to pay several million dong (over $100) a day because needed many services that are not covered by the insurance.

Tri’s older brother, Ly Moc Thieu, looked very old and pitiful in his torn clothes. His face was wrinkled and his eyes were bleary owing to shortage of sleep.

Thieu was embarrassed and didn’t know what to say. Some people who also came to the hospital to take care of their relatives expressed their pity for him. They said that Thieu went to hospital to take care his brother with an empty pocket. He had to live on the charity food of a nearby pagoda.

Tri’s parents have three children. His oldest brother – Thieu – got married and now lives with his wife’s family. Thieu is a worker. Tri has a hunchback and is very weak but he had to sell lottery tickets to support his sister, a mental health patient.

Since Tri fell sick and went to hospital, the sister lived on the kindness of the neighbors. Thieu is very poor and he had to go to hospital to take care of his brother.

Saying goodbye to Thieu, we saw hope in his eyes – the hope to gain money to cure his brother.

Another case that needs our readers’ assistance is child patient Le Thi Nhu Y, 26-month old from the southern province of Binh Duong. The baby is now at the Children’s Hospital 2 in HCM City.

The baby is now in a critical situation. She contracted high fever, abscess in lungs and blood infection. She has experienced four operations and is now living with respiratory machine.

Doctors said that the baby would have to stay in hospital for a long time so the hospital fees may rise to thousands of USD. As her parents are northern people who went to Binh Duong to work at an industrial zone, they are not recognized as local residents. As a result, only 30 percent of hospital fees of their daughter is covered by health insurance.

There are many child patients that need help at the Central Pediatrics Hospital in Hanoi. Ly Van Hoang, 7, from Cao Bang province is one of them. He caught rheumatism when he was a baby. The disease has developed seriously and it tortures the boy days and nights.

Hoang’s parents sold all their pigs and buffaloes and borrowed nearly $2000 from a bank to pay hospital fees for their son. “I have borrowed a total of VND30 million and I don’t have anything to pay the debt but I can’t watch my son die,” Hoang’s father, Ly Van Quy said.

The hospital has tried to help Quy by providing free food and instructing him on procedures to get the best health insurance coverage but the hospital fees are still an unbearable burden for this family.

Thanh Huyen – Cam Quyen