An elderly person can have more than 6 diseases.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trung Anh - Director of the Central Geriatric Hospital - said that on average, a Vietnamese person over 60 years old has 3-4 diseases; in particular, people over 80 years old can have more than 6 diseases.
In addition to illness, the elderly in Vietnam also have poor health and have to rely heavily on the help of caregivers and assistive devices in life. This is a huge burden for patients as well as their families, especially in terms of care.
Meanwhile, in many European and American countries, 80-year-olds are still healthy and still exercise and play sports every day. And from a very early age, these countries have focused on the issue of caring for the elderly. They take better care of the elderly, and they have the conditions to educate the elderly on how to take care of their own health.
In 2024, the theme of the International Day of Older Persons (1.10) is "Ageing with Dignity: The Importance of Strengthening Care and Support Systems for Older Persons Worldwide". This theme emphasizes the need to improve health care services and comprehensive support for older people, especially in the context of population aging becoming a global trend. Meanwhile, in Vietnam today, the ability to provide health services for the elderly is still very limited. More alarming is the lack of trained human resources and caregivers for the elderly.
At the central level, there is only one geriatric hospital; provincial, district and primary health care levels nationwide have not yet invested in and focused on building a system including human resources, material resources and financial resources for elderly health care. In the provinces nationwide, only provincial hospitals and above have geriatric departments. The entire southern region does not have a single geriatric hospital.
This is a cause for concern as people’s life expectancy is increasing and the disease trend is shifting from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. Furthermore, at the commune level, there are only people who provide general primary health check-ups, there are no doctors specifically for geriatrics, and some health stations do not have doctors.
There needs to be a policy to support human resource training.
Sharing about the development orientation of human resources in geriatrics, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Trung Anh stated that the geriatric human resources in Vietnam are still lacking in quantity, not meeting the requirements for geriatric departments or geriatric patient treatment beds at the provincial level.
"Therefore, it is necessary to actively train human resources for the geriatric profession, including doctors, nurses, technicians, and social workers to care for the elderly," said Associate Professor Trung Anh.
Regarding the training program, major medical universities in the country need to unify the common training program. Hanoi Medical University has a geriatric training program for medical students, has trained residents, masters, level II specialists, and doctors specializing in geriatrics.
In addition, there should be policies to support human resource training and the scope of professional activities in geriatrics for hospitals at all levels nationwide. The provision of services for the elderly also needs attention. New approved techniques, if covered by health insurance, will help provide better health care for the elderly.
"In addition, we also advise the Ministry of Health to amend some circulars to better suit the actual requirements of medical services in the treatment and care of the elderly. With the attention and direction of the Government and the participation of ministries such as health, labor, invalids and social security, and social security regimes, policies for the elderly will continue to be improved in the coming time" - Director of the Central Geriatric Hospital said.
