Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien (Source: VNA)
Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien called for mobilising more investments in the healthcare sector to ensure that people receive better diagnosis and treatment in hospitals.
"Promoting investment and developing a diagnosis and treatment system while reducing hospital congestion, would be the top priorities for the health sector in the coming years," Tien said at a conference on September 16.
"With regard to limited sources from the state budget and increasing public debt, measures to mobilise more sources from the society to invest in medical infrastructure, facilities or cooperation in health management and improvement in the quality of healthcare are expected to send out positive signals," Tien stressed.
The minister said that health infrastructure currently has not met the country's demand of diagnosis and treatment due to the low rate of beds, outdated medical facilities, and poor environmental and hygienic conditions, especially at the grass-root level.
"The country currently has only 24 beds per 10,000 people, which is far below the World Health Organisation recommendation rate of 39/10,000 people," Tien said.
The health ministry estimated that from 2016 to 2020, the country would need between 22,000 and 23,000 more public hospital beds and 9,000 private hospital beds to meet the target of 26 beds per 10,000 people by 2020. So, hospitals should focus on loans and investment cooperation and PPP projects to build new medical facilities.
At the event, participants reviewed the actual situation of medical infrastructure and investment demand for the coming years. They said that development of a private hospital system would also be a good measure to better serve people's demand of health check-up and treatment.
The ministry's statistics revealed that 610 of the 760 hospitals from district to central levels nation-wide received investment from state bonds from 2008 to date.
At the central level, many projects were completed and put to effective use, such as the Tan Trieu Cancer, Paediatrics, Viet Duc hospitals, and the Hue Central Hospital, apart from the Cancer Centre of Cho Ray Hospital, and the Thong Nhat hospital.-VNA
