When offering a suggestion to the healthcare sector before the National Assembly seventh session, Hanoi voters asked for more attention to be paid to the planning of technical infrastructure to settle the overloading at many hospitals.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said in order to reduce overloading at medical facilities, the Ministry of Health has asked the PM to issue legal documents and allow  implementation of some projects.

Lan said the healthcare sector has upgraded and expanded many units in hospitals, gradually easing the overload.

The number of hospitals nationwide has increased by 16 percent. In 2014, Vietnam had 1,415 hospitals, while the figure rose to 1.643 in 2023. The total number of beds in 2022 was 409,244, an increase of 41 percent over 2014.

Lan said the overload at central hospitals is nearly settled, and the problem only exists at provincial hospitals.

A report on the Law on Health Insurance in 2009-2023 submitted by the ministry to the government in late April also affirmed that overloading at central and first-level hospitals has declined.

Regarding patients’ satisfaction about medical services, the ministry said at a conference in January 2024 that it was over 90 percent.

Noting that patients now don’t have to share the same bed at most hospitals and that large hospitals such as Viet Duc Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital provide one bed for each patient, the Ministry of Health (MOH), however, admitted that the distance between beds remains narrow.

“Around 95 percent of central hospitals have committed not to let patients share beds within 24 hours or 48 hours after hospitalization,” the report says.

However, on August 24, 2024, Direction No 06 signed by Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan noted that the number of patients coming to central hospitals after the pandemic increased sharply, thus leading to overloading, which affected service quality and caused wrongdoings.

One woman recently complained that cancer patients have to give money to medical workers under the table. Le Van Quang, director of K Hospital, said all three treatment facilities at the hospital are facing overloading and the radiotherapy unit has to work 23 out of 24 hours a day.

Vo Thu