Timely life-saving of patients
Phuc Yen General Hospital (Phu Tho) has just provided emergency care for a pregnant woman who suddenly went into labor, giving birth to twins at home. Immediately upon receiving the news, the hospital sent a team including doctors, midwives, nurses and ambulances to the scene, and at the same time instructed the family by phone on how to take care of the mother and keep the baby warm.
At home, the two babies, each weighing about 3kg, were circumcised, cleaned, dried, and warmed before going to the medical facility with their mother to continue monitoring.
Another case at the National Children's Hospital clearly showed the value of every minute in circulatory arrest resuscitation. Baby P.T. M (12 years old) was hit hard in the chest by a soccer ball, then collapsed, stopped breathing, lost blood flow. An ambulance driver near the scene immediately performed a heart compression and helped take the baby to Son Duong Regional Medical Center (Tuyen Quang). Here, doctors intubated, performed balloon massage, compressed the heart and used adrenaline. After nearly an hour of resuscitation, the patient's pulse returned.
The baby was continuously transferred to the National Children's Hospital in a state of multiple organ failure after a prolonged circulatory arrest. Doctors treated him with mechanical ventilation, cardiovascular drugs, continuous blood filtration and active hypothermia of 34 degrees Celsius for 48 hours to protect the brain.
After a week of intensive treatment, the child woke up, recovered well, and no obvious mental or motor sequelae were recorded.
According to doctors, the above cases show that the sooner emergency care is given, the higher the chance of survival and recovery, especially in situations of cardiac arrest, severe injury or childbirth outside the hospital.
Investment in people and healthcare outside hospitals
Dr. Ha Anh Duc, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) emphasized that building an extra-hospital emergency system aims to shorten the time from receiving the call to when the patient is given emergency care and treatment. This is a particularly important factor for acute diseases that require early intervention.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hoang Bui Hai, Director of the Emergency and Intensive Care Center (Hanoi Medical University Hospital), to build a strong healthcare system, people must be placed at the center. Medical human resource training needs to be unified, approaching international standards, associated with hospital practice and the institute-school model.
He said that there needs to be financial support policies for people with capacity, including those in difficult circumstances, to have the opportunity to study medicine. At the same time, it is necessary to gradually narrow the gap between grassroots healthcare and specialized healthcare, ensuring that lower-level doctors have income, working environment and conditions to improve their expertise.
It is necessary to develop out-of-hospital healthcare, strengthen family doctors and professionalize out-of-hospital emergency care, and build a network of community first aid volunteers.
The Ministry of Health also orients to improve regulations on human resources, vehicles, coordination procedures and payment mechanisms, gradually considering health insurance.
Don't let golden time pass
From the above cases, experts assess that out-of-hospital emergency must be considered an important link of the health system, instead of just transporting patients.
With conditions such as cardiac arrest, stroke, myocardial infarction, severe injury or serious accident, every minute of delay can reduce the chance of survival or increase the risk of sequelae.
According to Decision 1515/QD-TTg dated August 10, 2026, the Project "Developing the out-of-hospital emergency system in the period 2026-2030" sets the goal of building a unified, synchronous and modern out-of-hospital emergency network; strengthening the connection between the health sector and the police, military and rescue forces.
By 2030, the goal is that 100% of provinces and cities will deploy a synchronous out-of-hospital emergency network; 100% of emergency calls will be received, consulted and coordinated promptly. In critical cases, the ambulance departure time is set at no more than 5 minutes.
The project also aims to have at least one standard ambulance for over 100,000 people, and at the same time build a National Outpatient Emergency Management Platform. The platform is expected to be completed in 2026, operating from 2027, supporting locating callers, monitoring ambulance locations, choosing suitable vehicles and online connections between teams at the scene and experts, receiving hospitals.
In particular, emergency care will be expanded right from the community. People are strengthened in training first aid and first aid skills, with the goal of at least 3% of the population having basic knowledge, of which 1% are trained in practice.
