Bac Giang keeps improving grassroots health care

Doctors provide teeth examination for patient at Song Thuong general hospital (Bac Giang province) (Photo: VNA)

Bac Giang (VNA) – The northern province of Bac Giang will continue to improve grassroots-level health care in the coming time, according to Director of the province’s Health Department Nguyen Thi Thu Huong.

By 2030, there will be at least one full-time doctor at every health station in the province, and a trained health worker at every hamlet.

The province also targets to have health insurance coverage reach over 99% of the total population; over 95% of the people use health services covered by health insurance at grassroots healthcare units; over 95% of people have their health records managed properly; and all communes, wards, and towns in the province meet national health criteria.

Also by 2030, the province will rearrange its district-level health centres and commune health stations in line with its rearrangement of administrative units. Accordingly, the province expects to have 11 district-level health centres including a city health centre, two township health centres, seven district health centres, and one health centre for industrial zones.

Meanwhile, it is also striving to have 192 commune-level health stations including eight  health stations, 17 town stations, and 167 commune stations.

Specifically, in the 2024 – 2025 period, Bac Giang will focus on completing, handing over and putting into use the investment project to expand the health centres of Luc Nam, Yen The and Son Dong districts.

The locality will also start projects to build, renovate and upgrade the infectious disease departments at the health centres of Luc Nam, Tan Yen, Hiep Hoa and Viet Yen districts. It will continue to renovate facilities and purchase new medical equipment for the centres in districts, Bac Giang city and industrial parks.

Doctor at a health care centre in Tien Dung commune, Yen Dung district gives medical check-up given to local people (Photo: VNA)

For the commune-level health system, Bac Giang will build, repair, and upgrade 22 stations under the investment programme to develop grassroots health networks in disadvantaged areas using loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

It will spend the remaining funds of the socio-economic recovery and development programme on upgrading and buying medical equipment for eight commune stations.

In the 2026 – 2030 period, the province will build a new Luc Ngan district health centre with a scale of 250 beds. It will also renovate, upgrade, and expand the first branch of Bac Giang City Health Centre and build a new branch in Tan My commune as well as a new health centre to serve the needs of disease prevention and medical examination and treatment for workers in industrial parks.

Commune-level medical facilities will be improved with focuses on better meeting the requirements of disease prevention, early detection, and the expansion of outpatient treatment of non-communicable diseases, chronic diseases, and long-term care at grassroots health units. The facilities will boost the documentation, examination, and management for all people in the province.

Meanwhile, district-level health centres will develop new technical services and specialised clinical/subclinical techniques; combine traditional medicine with modern medicine in medical examination and treatment; strengthen primary care services, proactively apply disease prevention and control measures, vaccination, nutrition, HIV/AIDS prevention; ensure food safety; improve population quality; and implement basic medical service packages as prescribed in Circular No. 37/2017/TT-BYT dated October 18, 2017, of the Ministry of Health regulating basic medical service packages for grassroots health care.

The province has 232 public health units including 12 provincial units, 11 district-level and 209 commune health stations. In addition, there is also one industry hospital – the second branch of Military Hospital 110 and a provincial police clinic. There are 656 non-public medical facilities in the province including 13 private hospitals with a total of 912 beds, 27 general clinics, and 427 specialised clinics.

Now, the province can arrange 31.8 beds and 12.2 doctors on average to serve every 10,000 people. Its health insurance coverage reaches 99.2%. The average life expectancy of people in Bac the province increased to 73.7 years./.