Outpatient emergency is still thin
According to reports, our country records about 222,000 stroke cases each year, but according to Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan, most patients have not had timely access to the emergency system. Only about 23.2% of stroke patients in Vietnam arrive at the hospital during prime time.
Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan said that the need for pre-hospital emergency care of people is extremely large, but the response capacity in many localities is still fragmented, uneven and lacks close connection between the stages: Coordination - Transportation - Receipt - Initial Treatment. "It is impossible to let out-of-hospital emergency care continue to be a thin, slow, and unsynchronized stage in the entire emergency chain" - the Deputy Minister frankly acknowledged.
Not only with strokes, the healthcare system is facing countless emergency situations such as traffic accidents, drowning, explosions, poisoning or acute cardiovascular events. All require a faster and more methodical response to regain the patient's chance of survival right from the first minutes at the scene. One of the reasons why the healthcare system operates ineffectively is the lack of a network of family doctors. Currently, every time people go for examination, they almost have to "start from scratch". Doctors diagnose based on the patient's discrete memory instead of a continuous health record. Patients do not remember clearly which drug they used to have an anaphylaxis with, what medical history they have... This not only wastes time and money but also poses extremely high medical risks. Healthcare outside the hospital with good management, family doctors with proper specialty orientation, then the pressure on the final level of treatment is reduced.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Bui Hai - Director of the Emergency and Intensive Care Center, Hanoi Medical University Hospital - said: Along with grassroots healthcare, a professional out-of-hospital emergency system is a key factor. The world has standardized the "8-minute principle" to access the scene, but in Vietnam, this path is still full of obstacles. "It is necessary to legitimize the profession, which means there must be an official industry code and profession code for out-of-hospital emergency staff to attract resources and provide worthy benefits. Universalize skills, consider training community volunteers as the focus. Looking at Thailand, they are 2 decades ahead of us with a remarkable community network model. There, a trained young man can protect the health of 10 surrounding families. Even a farmer in a remote area can become a "hero" forcing the heart to save a neighbor when guided through the coordination switchboard" - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Bui Hai analyzed.
Back" to the broken link
The Government has issued Resolution 282/NQ-CP, assigning the Ministry of Health to develop a national project to develop the out-of-hospital emergency system in the period 2026-2030. This is considered a revolution in the organization of out-of-hospital healthcare in Vietnam. The goal of the Project is to strive to achieve a rate of at least 1 ambulance/100,000 people. Increasing the number of vehicles helps shorten the time to access the scene, turning ambulances into "mobile emergency rooms". Information from the scene must be directly interlinked with the receiving hospital. Socialization of first aid skills is a breakthrough. The training subjects will be expanded, not only limited to medical staff but also popularized to the Fire and Rescue Police and Traffic Police; Flight attendants; Students and residential communities.
