Lao Cai Healthcare: Solid foundation, breakthrough creation, aiming for people's satisfaction

With the motto "Taking people as the center of service", Lao Cai Health Sector aims for the highest goal: Health, trust and satisfaction of the people.

In recent years, Lao Cai's health sector has made strong and comprehensive progress. From strengthening the network of facilities, investing in infrastructure and modern equipment to promoting digital transformation and improving service quality, the sector has gradually built a solid foundation, creating a breakthrough in people's health care.

Strengthening the foundation - improving quality from the grassroots

At Bao Ai Commune Health Station, on average, 30-40 people come to get medical examinations, vaccinations, and health consultations every day. The facilities are relatively spacious, the system of machines and basic medical examination and treatment equipment meets the requirements, and the medical staff is friendly - all of which create a clear change compared to a few years ago.

Doctor Dang Xuan Truong - Head of Bao Ai Commune Health Station, shared: "Previously, the station only had 5 functional rooms, but now it has been invested in 12 rooms according to national health standards. With a doctor on duty, people trust us more to come for medical examination. Thanks to the application of non-communicable disease management software, we monitor and treat high blood pressure and diabetes for people more effectively."

Not only in Bao Ai commune, but also in the whole province, the grassroots health system has been invested synchronously, gradually innovating its operating methods towards proactive disease prevention, screening, and early detection of diseases. The capacity of grassroots health care has been increasingly strengthened; basic health stations have enough staff according to job positions.

Up to now, Lao Cai province has 88/99 commune health stations with doctors (reaching 82.8%), 100% of stations deploy management of medical examination and treatment and non-communicable diseases using electronic software, online prescription through the donthuocquocgia.vn system. These advances not only modernize grassroots healthcare activities but also bring healthcare services closer and more convenient to the people.

Medical staff and population collaborators provide consultation and home health care for the elderly - a regular activity demonstrating the role of grassroots health care in bringing services closer to ethnic minorities in Lao Cai.

Synchronous investment - improving medical examination and treatment capacity

In the period of 2020 - 2025, Lao Cai's health sector made its mark with a strong transformation in infrastructure, technology and service quality. The whole province has 6 newly built hospitals and 5 regional medical centers; many facilities have been upgraded, repaired and expanded in scale. Currently, the whole province has 6,809 hospital beds, equivalent to 41.1 beds/10,000 people, higher than the national average (34 beds/10,000 people).

Along with that, a series of modern medical equipment has been invested in provincial hospitals, such as: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 768-slice CT scanner, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, diagnostic imaging combined with X-ray and computer processing to clearly observe blood vessels in the body (DSA), linear radiotherapy system, in vitro fertilization (IVF)... Thanks to that, many advanced techniques, such as: organ transplantation, brain surgery, joint replacement, coronary intervention, brain thrombectomy... have been performed right in Lao Cai, reducing the referral rate from 3.39% in 2020 to 2.34% in 2024.

Promoting investment in modern equipment and human resource training helps many high-tech techniques to be implemented right in the province, contributing to reducing the referral rate to 2.34% in 2024.

The strong development of infrastructure and technology has created a solid foundation to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment. From there, the problem is how to manage effectively, serve patients more quickly and transparently.

Therefore, to optimize operational efficiency, improve transparency and bring the most convenient service experience to the people, Lao Cai Health Sector has identified digital transformation as an inevitable path. Digital transformation is not just about installing software but a revolution in management and service methods.

Up to now, 100% of medical examination and treatment facilities in the province have completed the implementation of electronic medical records; 100% of hospitals have applied hospital information management software (HIS); 18/24 hospitals have implemented image storage and transmission software (RIS, PACS); the rate of people with electronic health records has reached 95%, health examination using citizen identification cards has reached 84.21%; 100% of hospitals have cashless payments... These advances not only improve management efficiency and transparency but also bring convenience and satisfaction to people when accessing medical services.

Identify challenges, proactively innovate to break through

In addition to the achievements, Lao Cai health care still faces many difficulties, such as: Ununified management model, lack of human resources, especially specialized doctors; degraded and unsynchronized facilities and equipment; limited quality of grassroots services; slow implementation of digital transformation and socialization of health care. In addition, complex underlying diseases, child malnutrition, early birth rate and low life expectancy are still challenges that need to be focused on overcoming.

Free medical examination and treatment activities for people demonstrate the concern of Lao Cai Health Sector in improving community health.

Entering the period of 2025 - 2030, the provincial health sector will focus on protecting, caring for and improving people's health with the viewpoint of "Prevention is better than cure", "Preventive medicine is the key, primary health care is the foundation; improving the quality of health services is a breakthrough".

Specialist II, Meritorious Doctor Hoang Quoc Huong - Director of Lao Cai Department of Health, said: "The sector will continue to strongly innovate thinking and action, improve the capacity of the entire system. In particular, aiming to strengthen preventive medicine and grassroots health care, promote traditional medicine; synchronously invest in facilities, equipment, develop high-quality medical human resources; promote health financial reform, effectively use the Health Insurance Fund, expand flexible insurance packages; apply science - technology and comprehensive digital transformation, especially artificial intelligence (AI) in medical examination and treatment and epidemiological surveillance. Along with that, encourage the development of private health care, public-private partnership models to mobilize social resources.

Today's efforts will be an important foundation for the Provincial Health Sector to continue to firmly step forward on the journey of caring for, protecting and improving people's health, towards a healthy, happy and sustainably developed Lao Cai.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/y-te-lao-cai-vung-nen-tang-tao-dot-pha-huong-den-su-hai-long-nguoi-dan-post884281.html