Investing in facilities for end-of-line hospitals: Reducing overload and reducing medical examination and treatment costs

After merging with Ho Chi Minh City, the top concern of the people in the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area was to enjoy better quality of healthcare. Therefore, when the news that the city's health sector planned to open facilities of end-line hospitals in this area, people welcomed it with excitement.

Worried about missing the "golden time"

Ms. Dang Thi Ngoc Bich (Binh Gia Commune, Ho Chi Minh City) said that she still has not forgotten the feeling of panic when her mother fell ill, having difficulty breathing in the middle of the night, an incident that happened 1 year ago. After her mother received first aid at the Chau Duc District Medical Center, her family continued to take her straight to the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City at 3 a.m. Although the road was quite clear at that time, the journey of more than 80km still took nearly 3 hours.

Ms. Bich recalls: “On the car, I was worried that my mother would get worse and I didn’t know what to do. As soon as we arrived at the hospital, we were immediately solicited by the service brokers at the gate. When we went in for an examination, we had to wait until almost 8 a.m. to get a doctor’s consultation and test order, and many tests had to be scheduled for the next day to get the results. The patient and their family were all exhausted.”

Vung Tau General Hospital performs arthroscopic surgery on a patient. Photo: KHÁNH CHI

Before the news that the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health planned to open a final hospital facility in the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area, Ms. Bich expressed her joy: "With a final hospital near home, people, especially the poor, will have less hardship as they can save money and time so they can feel secure in their treatment."

Mr. Tran Minh Tien (Vung Tau ward) shared: “Going to the final hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, just counting the travel time and waiting time for clinical examination takes up the whole morning. If you need in-depth testing, it can take several days. You also have to wait for service examination because the hospital is overloaded.”

Mr. Tien said that the local hospital planning is also unreasonable. Right in Vung Tau ward - the center of tourism and services, there is no hospital, people or tourists in an accident have to travel at least 8km, taking about 15 minutes, easily missing the "golden time" for emergency treatment.

Acknowledging that “the medical capacity of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area was previously limited”, Mr. Nguyen Tan Ban, former Director of the Provincial Department of Health, now Secretary of the Vung Tau Ward Party Committee, said that after the area merged into Ho Chi Minh City, people expected to enjoy the city’s medical advances. Developing healthcare in association with tourism is a feasible direction, promoting local advantages.

The land of Le Loi Hospital (Vung Tau ward) is proposed to be selected to open the second facility of a terminal hospital.

In fact, many plots of land in the area are ready to welcome new medical facilities, such as the old Le Loi Hospital (Vung Tau ward), the old Ba Ria Hospital (Ba Ria ward). In particular, the land of the old Le Loi Hospital has been approved for detailed planning 1/500 and the planning project to become Vung Tau Central Hospital has been announced. According to the planning project, the hospital has a scale of 196 beds, including 5 floors above ground and 1 basement, with functional blocks such as hospital, medical services, parking, technical infrastructure, trees and internal traffic.

Two plots of land "waiting" for hospital investment

At the end of 2024, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province organized an auction of many prime land plots, including 2 plots planned for medical land, including: A ^17,787.6m2 land plot in Phu My ward was successfully auctioned with a winning price of 110.3 billion VND. According to the approved 1/500 detailed construction plan, this land plot is planned to implement a hospital project with a scale of 200 beds.

The ^40,439m2 land plot in Phuoc Thang ward was auctioned with a starting price of nearly 400 billion VND, expected to build a general hospital in the form of land lease with one-time payment. The land use period is 50 years from the date of the land lease decision. The general hospital has a scale of 400 beds, a maximum height of 10 floors and a construction density of 40%.

End-line hospitals are ready

In response to the policy of Ho Chi Minh City, many end-line hospitals have proactively proposed to open facilities in the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area. Dr. Le Tran Quang Minh, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, said that in the past two years, on average, the hospital has examined and treated about 13,000 patients in the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area and performed nearly 600 surgeries. If including patients and caregivers, there are up to 20,000 patients from this area coming to the hospital every year.

“Opening an additional facility in Ba Ria - Vung Tau will help reduce the load on end-line hospitals in the central area, saving patients travel costs. In addition to emergency care and on-site treatment, the new facility is expected to perform cosmetic surgery, head and neck cancer screening, early deafness in children and the elderly, and combine medical tourism,” said Dr. Le Tran Quang Minh, MD.

According to Dr. Diep Bao Tuan, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, in the first 6 months of this year, the hospital received 8,800 patients from the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area. With the motto "Caring for the sick but not forgetting the healthy", Mr. Diep Bao Tuan proposed to build a cancer screening facility in Vung Tau to serve the people and tourists.

The leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology also said that the facility in Vung Tau will not only examine and treat local people and neighboring areas, but also serve a large number of international visitors who need to come to Vietnam to use dental services combined with relaxation. The Ho Chi Minh City Rehabilitation Hospital proposed to build a post-surgery treatment model, combining nursing and rehabilitation, to serve the elderly in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring areas.

Doctors at Vung Tau General Hospital examine patients

Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Tang Chi Thuong, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, commented that many end-of-line hospitals have a need to open more facilities in Ba Ria - Vung Tau. The Department of Health will consider and choose to open specialized hospitals for this area, prioritizing units with ready financial resources, on the basis of developing a medical model associated with tourism. The Department will soon submit to the City People's Committee a plan to select a pioneer hospital to open a second facility on the land of Le Loi Hospital, then continue to consider other medical planning land. Opening facilities of end-of-line hospitals in this area not only solves the problem of overload, but is also a strategic step to improve the quality of medical care in the area, reducing time costs for patients.

Binh Duong residents hope to access high-quality medical services

After Binh Duong merged into Ho Chi Minh City, the health sector of this area is actively changing to keep up with the general development of Ho Chi Minh City. People hope to access high-quality health services quickly and conveniently.

Mr. Dao Ngoc Lanh (56 years old) in Phu Loi 9 quarter, Phu Loi ward has been struggling with polyarthritis for many years. He said: “If there had been a specialized hospital in the Binh Duong area before, people would have had less trouble and saved a lot of travel expenses.”

Ms. Mai Thi Hong (50 years old), residing in Phu Chanh quarter, Binh Duong ward, shared that more than 2 years ago, she had abdominal pain and had to go to the emergency room. At H. Hospital, the doctor diagnosed her with colon cancer and she had to undergo surgery. However, after the surgery, she felt that her condition did not improve, so she decided to go to Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital for examination and the result was that she had early stage colon cancer. Thanks to the hospital's timely intervention, after a period of treatment, her health has stabilized.

Believing that large hospitals will provide accurate diagnoses from the beginning, help save costs, and increase the possibility of curing the disease, no matter how far away, many Binh Duong residents still choose to go to large hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City for medical examination and treatment.

Recently, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has organized two field surveys of public investment projects of the health sector in the former Binh Duong area, including the 1,500-bed Binh Duong General Hospital, Binh Duong Tuberculosis Hospital, Binh Duong Mental Hospital and facilities currently located on the Nguyen Sinh Sac Relic Project Cluster.

Thereby, the department proposed to accelerate the progress of the Binh Duong General Hospital project to put it into operation and exploitation in 2026. For the Binh Duong Tuberculosis Hospital and Binh Duong Mental Hospital projects, the department proposed the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to approve the policy of supplementing public capital in 2025 for renovation and repair to quickly put it into operation and use effectively in the first phase.

CAO SON

KHANH CHI

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/dau-tu-co-so-cho-benh-vien-tuyen-cuoi-bot-qua-tai-giam-chi-phi-kham-chua-benh-post816685.html