Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang (45 years old, Ho Chi Minh City), a worker at a garment company, has been regularly health checked by businesses for many years. Last weekend, she was informed by the neighborhood to participate in a free health check-up program for people, but she did not go because of her overtime work and said that she had already had regular check-ups at the company.
I think regular health check-ups at the company are enough to monitor health, so I don't participate in the locality," Ms. Trang shared.
Ms. Trang's story is a typical situation of many contract workers at businesses. Most workers have participated in periodic health check-ups at their workplaces, so participating in free health check-ups is not sufficient.
Recorded at Nidec Vietnam Company, the most recent examination was organized in mid-2026 with about 4,000 workers participating.
According to Mr. Luu Kim Hong - Chairman of the Trade Union of Nidec Vietnam Company, the enterprise has conducted periodic health checks for employees for many years in accordance with the law. Periodic health checks play an important role in personnel management and protection of employees' rights. The examination results help businesses assess health status, arrange suitable jobs, and are also the basis for considering specific working regimes such as overtime or job transfers.
However, Mr. Hong said that it is necessary to clarify the data linkage mechanism between periodic health check-ups at enterprises and the Ho Chi Minh City's universal health check-up program to avoid overlap, procedures and waste of resources.
Businesses have conducted annual periodic health checks. The current issue is that there needs to be specific guidance on updating data to the city's health management system, which unit is responsible for implementing it and how to connect it," Mr. Hong expressed his opinion.
From the above reality, the city's population is 14 million people, but only nearly 4 million people have free health check-ups, which is low. Universal health check-ups are a major plan of Ho Chi Minh City, with the goal of 100% of people having free health check-ups at least once a year and data forming electronic health records. People have free health check-ups at any medical facility in the area suitable for travel or workplace conditions regardless of residence.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tang Chi Thuong - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health assessed: "The plan for universal health check-ups enters a more difficult stage because a part of the population does not want to have check-ups even though they are free. The group of workers at enterprises is a major challenge. Currently, the rate of this group participating in health check-ups is still low, only about 10%. Therefore, the Department of Health proposed that the city direct industrial parks, export processing zones and enterprises to coordinate in organizing periodic check-ups for workers.
To increase the rate of people getting health check-ups, in the coming time, the health sector will focus on three main groups. For people in the community, 168 wards, communes, and special zones continue to mobilize the political system to mobilize people, prioritizing 18 localities with low check-up rates.
