(VOVworld) – In 2013 the Health Ministry launched a project to develop satellite hospitals to reduce overcrowding at central hospitals. VOV’s Hieu Hien reports on the results the program has had in Vietnam’s southern provinces.

Services have improved remarkably at 48 hospitals after two years of implementing a satellite hospital project that aims to reduce overcrowding at central hospitals in the country. (Photo: healthplus.vn)

The satellite hospital project launched 2 years ago provides personnel training and transfers medical techniques from central hospitals to provincial health clinics.

A network linking central, core hospitals and provincial, satellite hospitals has been established to help the satellite hospitals improve selected departments, transfer technology, and upgrade infrastructure.

In 2 years the rate of patients sent to central hospitals has declined sharply and several satellite hospitals are now performing advanced medical procedures.

Khanh Hoa’s General Hospital has performed 34 open heart surgeries and recently performed a successful emergency surgery on a patient with slimy, gelatinous tumors in the left atrium, a condition with a high mortality rate. Doctor Nguyen Van Xang, the hospital’s director, said heart patients in the province now have very little need to go to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for treatment.

But now, Xang noted that “not only have we treated patients in this province, we have also provided examinations for heart patients from neighboring provinces and admitted them to the hospital for further treatment. Our doctors have performed emergency surgeries on the spot and performed some advanced procedures involving tumours, trauma, and orthopedics. This success is due to the staff’s dedication despite a shortage of funding.”

Seven core hospitals in the south are currently involved in transferring medical techniques to 15 satellite hospitals in 10 provinces.  

One major difficulty facing the satellite hospitals is that they must make huge investments in equipment to meet the requirements of technique transference but they lack sufficient capital, according to Dr. Vo Quang Nhat of Ho Chi Minh City’s Hospital for Traumatology and Orthopaedics. 

Nhat mentioned “one of the challenges is the disbursement of funding to cover all the needs of the satellite hospitals. In the next 5 years, we’ll continue to support satellite hospitals through consultations or by directly performing complicated surgeries even though the project’s first phase has ended.”

Satellite hospitals are still short of human resources, medical equipment and facilities.

Head of the Medical Services Administration of the Health Ministry Luong Ngoc Khue said that pursuant to the Prime Minister’s announcement, the Hanoi Heart Hospital will be designated as a core hospital and the general hospitals of five northern provinces will be added to the list of satellite hospitals.

Ministry data shows that under the project, 14 core hospitals have taken responsibility of transferring medical techniques to 48 satellite hospitals in five areas that have serious patient overcrowding - cardiovascular, surgery, cancer, obstetrics, and paediatrics.

Some satellite hospitals have mastered advanced procedures, giving patients, especially poor people, better care at the provincial level.