Children's Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City in the last days of the year, doctors and nurses are still busy with their work. Because it is a final-line hospital, the workload is always high even on Tet holiday, and all care work still takes place normally.
BS.CKII Truong Thi Ngoc Phu - Deputy Head of the General Planning Department, Children's Hospital 2 HCMC said that usually before Tet, the number of pediatric patients undergoing outpatient examinations tends to increase slightly due to the psychology of adults who do not want children to get seriously ill during Tet holidays because they have to go home and travel far, so they take children for examination early as soon as they start to have symptoms of the disease.
In addition, Circular 26/2025/TT-BYT has a new point compared to before, which is that the prescriber decides the number of days of use of each drug in the prescription based on the clinical condition, the stability of the patient to prescribe with the maximum number of days of use of each drug not exceeding 90 days. This regulation helps remove difficulties for children with chronic diseases and doctors in prescribing long-term drugs to facilitate children and families during Tet.
For inpatient children who are still staying for treatment during Tet, most are severe children, suffering from many underlying diseases, prolonged hospitalization, or children with acute illnesses hospitalized close to Tet. The number fluctuates in these days around 700 - 800 children compared to 1,100 - 1,300 children on other days of the year.
As for cases that require surgery but are not urgent, families tend to postpone "eating Tet" and then think about it," Dr. Ngoc Phu added.
Recorded at Thong Nhat Hospital, which is a final-line hospital mainly taking care of the elderly, in the days leading up to Tet, many people believe that the hospital will "rush" to discharge patients to be able to return home to reunite. However, according to BS.CKII Nguyen Duy Cuong - Head of the General Planning Department, Thong Nhat Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, treatment activities at the hospital are still taking place normally, there is no such thing as massive discharge.
Doctor Cuong said that on average, the hospital has about 150 patients discharged each day, this number is equivalent to other times of the year.
Hospitals do not have the concept of Tet holidays like other agencies. When patients meet professional conditions, they are allowed to go home, if they are not stable, they continue treatment. There is no such thing as changing principles because of Tet," the doctor emphasized.
According to him, if the patient asks to go home when the condition is not stable, the risk of recurrence or severe progression is inevitable. "If you go home before you recover, you may get sick again. Therefore, the discharge decision is entirely based on professional evaluation," said Dr. Cuong.
For chronic patients such as high blood pressure, diabetes or asthma, Dr. Cuong believes that the principle of care during Tet is no different from normal days. Patients need to adhere to treatment, use medication as prescribed and maintain a stable lifestyle.
Tet is also just a normal period of living. The important thing is to control the disease well and not be subjective," he noted.
In the atmosphere of year-end reunion, the hospital is still brightly lit 24/24 hours. For the medical team, Tet is not a reason to relax professionalism, because above all, patient safety is still the top priority.
