Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City will rearrange 38 regional health centers, including 168 health stations under the Department of Health, to form 168 commune, ward and special zone health stations under the People's Committees at the commune level, expected to officially operate from January 1, 2026.
This is a step to concretize Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthrough solutions in the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health, while also being consistent with the two-level local government model according to new conclusions of the Central Committee.
According to the Project, the Health Stations after the arrangement will be public health service units, with legal status, seals and separate accounts; under the direct management of the People's Committees of communes, wards and special zones on organizational structure, human resources and finance. At the same time, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health continues to play the role of guiding, supporting and inspecting expertise, ensuring consistency in the entire health system of the City.
The consistent principle of the arrangement process is to inherit all existing facilities, human resources, and equipment, without interrupting people's health care activities. For health centers in areas without beds, all preventive health functions, primary health care, non-communicable disease management, vaccination, communication, and health education will be fully transferred to the Commune-level Health Stations; these Centers will cease operations after completing the handover according to regulations.
For health centers in areas with beds, the City will transfer part of the grassroots health tasks to health stations, while continuing to maintain inpatient and outpatient medical examination and treatment activities and develop a conversion roadmap in accordance with the health network planning in the next phase.
The implementation of the Health Station under the People's Committee at the commune level is expected to shorten the management gap, increase the initiative of the grassroots government, and help the Health Station closely follow the actual needs of the people. Thereby, the Health Station truly becomes the "first medical touchpoint" in the health care system, a solid foundation of the City's health sector.
In parallel with the organizational arrangement, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has identified improving the operational capacity of the Health Station as a key task. The health sector will coordinate with training institutions to organize training courses, update laws, management knowledge and expertise for the grassroots health sector; at the same time, strengthen professional connections between upper-level hospitals and the Health Station through consultation, remote consultation and telemedicine.
The supply of health insurance drugs continues to be guaranteed through the form of joint bidding, assigning basic level hospitals to implement, helping Health Stations have enough drugs according to the standardized list, ensuring the rights of people when examining and treating diseases at the grassroots level.
Notably, the City will promote the application of digital technology and artificial intelligence in the operation of the Health Station. The AI model that supports X-ray reading and analysis, which was once effective at the Thanh An island commune health station, will be widely studied, especially in the context that many health stations do not have specialized doctors to diagnose images.
In emergency work, the 115 Emergency Center continues to coordinate to support the Health Station in timely referral, ensuring the safety of patients. In the field of epidemic prevention and control, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control will increase training and coaching according to many scenarios, helping the grassroots level detect early, respond quickly, and handle effectively.
