With 200 satellite hospitals, patients no longer have to suffer the "torture" of transferring to another hospital.

By 2030, the Ministry of Health aims to build 200 satellite hospitals across the country. Patients will receive quality treatment at higher levels right in their local area, without the hassle of transferring to higher levels.

Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital (left) is expected to become the second facility of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital (HCMC) while Binh Duong Psychiatric Hospital (right) will become the fourth facility of HCMC Psychiatric Hospital - Photo: TRI DUC

The draft project "Improving professional capacity, supporting training, transferring technology and developing a satellite hospital network for the period 2026 - 2030" of the Ministry of Health is being consulted, with the goal of establishing 200 satellite hospitals across the country by 2030.

At that time, instead of having to go through the trouble of transferring to central hospitals to treat difficult diseases, patients can completely feel secure to visit and receive treatment right at the hospital near their home. This is considered as a "blood change", "transformation", improving the quality of service of the health sector.

Treatment near home with quality like upper level

Mr. K. (78 years old, old Quang Binh district, Tuyen Quang) suffered from hemiplegia, difficulty speaking, slow communication, facial paralysis, and was taken to the Quang Binh General Hospital for emergency treatment. After examination, doctors diagnosed the patient with a first-hour ischemic stroke.

Previously, for stroke patients, Quang Binh General Hospital had to transfer them to Ha Giang General Hospital for treatment, which took at least two hours if the roads were clear and there were no floods or landslides. Unfortunately, if there were traffic problems, many people would have difficulty accessing specialized medical care, missing out on the golden time for treatment.

Close to home and still well cared for

An important new point in this project is to encourage the form of "guided transfer". Accordingly, after emergency or critical treatment at the nuclear hospital, patients will be transferred to a qualified satellite hospital for continued treatment.

Patients will be accompanied by detailed medical records, treatment plans and instructions, while still being monitored, consulted and advised remotely via the Telehealth system. This model not only reduces the burden on upper-level hospitals but also helps patients continue to receive quality care close to where they live.

Mr. K. was admitted to the hospital at the same time that doctors at Quang Binh General Hospital had just been trained in performing thrombolysis (rt-PA) from Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi). As a result, Mr. Quang was promptly intervened, successfully treated, and took advantage of the golden time.

According to Bach Mai Hospital, in recent times, many satellite hospitals have mastered many difficult techniques, helping to reduce the rate of hospital transfers. Sharing about the development of satellite hospitals, Mr. Vu Van Giap, Deputy Director of Bach Mai Hospital, said that the hospital has sent more than 2,100 professors, doctors, and specialists to participate in the direction of the line; sent 1,700 professional staff to rotate and support nearly 200 hospitals in the northern provinces.

Doctors and nurses directly examined and treated 195,780 patients, including nearly 2,200 seriously ill and critical patients, helping to reduce the referral rate by 30%.

In Ho Chi Minh City, on the basis of core hospitals, a network of satellite hospitals has been established and developed, thereby expanding high-quality medical services to the city's gateway hospitals as well as neighboring localities.

Currently, there are 22 hospitals nationwide participating in the satellite network of Cho Ray Hospital, focusing on supporting specialties such as cardiology, trauma surgery, hematology... At the same time, there are 12 specialties of Cho Ray Hospital directly participating in the project with more than 5,000 patients receiving support for procedures and surgeries.

Notably, the rate of patients having to be transferred to higher levels for transferred technical packages decreased by an average of 50 - 80%, with interventional cardiology and hematology in particular decreasing by over 90%.

Specifically, after the new construction, Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital received comprehensive support from People's Hospital 115, especially in the construction and development of the stroke unit. Immediately after that, this hospital treated the first stroke case using thrombolysis technique with the support of People's Hospital 115.

According to Dr. Dang Quoc Quan - Director of Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital, this is an important milestone demonstrating the unit's growing professional capacity, while opening up expectations to improve the quality of stroke treatment locally as well as improve the quality of stroke treatment in the northwest region of the city.

To contribute to reducing the burden of cancer patients, in recent years, Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital has also organized professional cooperation and technology transfer agreements with hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces of the Southwest, Southeast, Central Highlands and Central coastal provinces.

Dr. Vo Hong Minh Phuoc, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, said that to fundamentally solve the "problem" of overload at end-line hospitals, it is necessary to build and develop a cancer prevention network in the Southern region and regional linkages.

Viet Duc Friendship Hospital conducts remote consultations and provides professional support to satellite hospitals - Photo: BVCC

Expanding the system of major hospitals

Over the past years, the Ho Chi Minh City health sector has implemented a series of solutions to reduce the burden on upper-level hospitals, including solutions such as satellite hospitals, satellite clinics, and satellite departments. The main force is the "core hospitals" such as Oncology Hospital, People's Hospital 115, Orthopedics and Trauma, Children's Hospital 1... which take on the role of technology transfer. This not only improves the capacity to handle difficult cases, gains the trust of the people, but also reduces the rate of having to transfer patients to upper-level hospitals.

According to the overall development project of the health sector of Binh Duong (old) to 2030, with a vision to 2050, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has approved the policy of transferring the facility at Binh Duong Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital to become the second facility of Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) and the facility at Binh Duong Mental Hospital to become the fourth facility of Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital.

In addition to expanding facilities 2 and 3, the Ho Chi Minh City health sector also assigned leading hospitals to support hospitals in Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau (old).

Notably, in September 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City health sector sent 7 leading specialist doctors from 6 end-line hospitals such as Hung Vuong, Binh Dan, Nguyen Tri Phuong... to take turns to Con Dao special zone, helping people living here access quality medical services right on the island.

Not only suburban hospitals, but also suburban and border areas such as Hoc Mon and Thu Duc general hospitals, in April 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health directed leading hospitals to support the signing of comprehensive cooperation agreements for these hospitals.

Typically, at Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital, a comprehensive cooperation agreement was signed with 4 hospitals so that People's Hospital 115 provides comprehensive support, Tu Du Hospital provides obstetrics support, Children's Hospital 1 provides pediatric support, and Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology supports odonto-stomatology. Notably, a specialized stroke treatment center was established right at Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital, with comprehensive support from the leadership and medical team of People's Hospital 115.

In June 2025, Gia Dinh People's Hospital officially put into operation a satellite clinic at Saigon General Hospital, marking the first step in a comprehensive professional cooperation model between two major hospitals in the city. The satellite clinic includes 3 specialized clinics for internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and pediatrics and 2 specialist clinics, operating with the permanent participation of a team of leading expert doctors from Gia Dinh People's Hospital.

According to the roadmap approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Saigon General Hospital will become the second facility of Gia Dinh People's Hospital, oriented to develop into a general hospital specializing in emergency care when this hospital is located in a "golden" location in the city center, where there are many domestic and international tourists.

By August 2025, Tu Du Hospital, Branch 2, will be officially put into operation under a multidisciplinary model, built on the foundation of Can Gio District Hospital, which was established in 2007 and has contributed to community health care for many years.

Speaking to Tuoi Tre, Dr. Tran Ngoc Hai, Director of Tu Du Hospital, said that he was assigned by the Ministry of Health to direct the line and transfer techniques to the provinces in the Central and Southern regions. The hospital most recently transferred laparoscopic hysterectomy techniques to Binh Thuan General Hospital.

After the merger, the hospital has planned to increase its capacity, including developing a second facility at Can Gio Medical Center with a team of professional staff, facilities and synchronous equipment. This facility will expand its specialties and specialized techniques, aiming to become a grade 1 general hospital, upgrading to a modern general hospital with quality equivalent to that of a provincial hospital.

Some pathology specialties need satellite hospitals the most in the period 2026 - 2030 - Source: Ministry of Health

Satellite hospitals support the end line

Based on the existing advantages, the draft project "Improving professional capacity, supporting training, transferring technology and developing a satellite hospital network in the period 2026 - 2030" is considered an important next step after the period 2013 - 2020, aiming to build a modern, synchronous and effective health system, ensuring people have access to quality health services right at their place of residence (see detailed project objectives in the graphic).

Entering a new phase, in the context that the country currently has nearly 400 public hospitals and more than 50,000 private clinics, with increasing demand for health care, the Ministry of Health determined that continuing to expand the satellite hospital network is very necessary.

The project is divided into two implementation phases. Phase 2026 - 2028 prioritizes the development of a satellite hospital network in specialties with a high rate of patients requiring referral or a high burden of disease. During this time, the Ministry of Health focuses on training and transferring key techniques, while promoting the application of information technology, developing a remote medical examination and treatment system, and improving management capacity and digital transformation at hospitals.

The 2028 - 2030 period will summarize and evaluate the results of the previous period, replicate effective models and expand the satellite hospital network to other specialties, aiming for a comprehensive and cohesive system between technical expertise levels.

The Ministry of Health assessed that the project is expected to significantly improve the quality of medical examination and treatment at the grassroots level, increase the rate of people treated at local hospitals, reduce the rate of referrals, and reduce costs and travel time for patients.

When the satellite hospital network operates effectively, people in all regions can access modern medical services, contributing to strengthening trust in the grassroots health system and successfully carrying out the task of protecting, caring for, and improving people's health as set out by the Party and State.

Source: Ministry of Health - Graphics: TAN DAT

138 satellite hospitals established after 7 years

Previously, the Ministry of Health implemented the satellite hospital project for the period 2013 - 2020 to improve the medical examination and treatment capacity of lower-level hospitals. The project focuses on training, technology transfer, infrastructure and medical equipment renovation.

After 7 years of implementation, the satellite hospital system has achieved many outstanding results. Hospitals have received more than 1,500 training courses and 1,009 technical packages have been successfully transferred. Many advanced techniques and medical technologies have been deployed at the provincial level, helping to improve treatment capacity and significantly reduce the number of patients having to be transferred to the central level.

The referral rate is still high in some disease groups.

According to the report of the Ministry of Health for the period 2023 - 2024 of a number of central and specialized hospitals, the number of patients transferred from lower levels in some groups of diseases and syndromes remains high.

At Viet Duc Hospital, the subdural hemorrhage group accounted for 7.19%. At Cho Ray Hospital, the group of diseases/syndromes with the highest rate of admission and transfer was neurological diseases accounting for 21%, followed by cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases, liver tumors, orthopedics...

Ho Chi Minh City is researching additional facilities 2 and 3 of the leading hospital.

After the merger, the population of Ho Chi Minh City reached nearly 14 million people. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health predicted that the risk of overloading the final hospitals was quite clear if the health sector did not proactively have appropriate short-term and long-term solutions.

Mr. Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, emphasized that this is both a big challenge and a great opportunity for the health sector to proactively research and expand service facilities according to the model of facilities 2 and 3 of leading general and specialized hospitals in the new areas of Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Duong (old) provinces.

Public-private cooperation to attract medical tourism

Mr. Nguyen Duc Loc, Acting Executive Director of Gia An 115 Hospital, said that in addition to the regular medical staff including many experts and specialists, the hospital also cooperates professionally with a number of large public hospitals such as People's Hospital 115, Cho Ray Hospital...

Thanks to these efforts, the number of international patients coming to Gia An 115 Hospital is increasing, mainly from China, Cambodia and the US. In 2024 alone, the number of Cambodian patients increased by nearly 50%, and from China by more than 20%. Notably, in the first 6 months of 2025 alone, the number of Cambodian patients reached more than 73% of the whole year of 2024.

With the second facility in Can Gio, the representative of Tu Du Hospital also said that in addition to medical examination and treatment, the hospital also focuses on implementing community health programs, while aiming to develop high-quality medical tourism, contributing to the sustainable development of Can Gio.

THU HIEN - DUONG LIEU - XUAN MAI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/co-200-benh-vien-ve-tinh-nguoi-benh-het-canh-hanh-xac-chuyen-tuyen-20250920085349374.htm