On November 25, at the Conference to summarize 10 years of implementing the National Action Program on improving the capacity to manage the quality of medical examination and treatment for the period 2015 - 2025, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said: 10 years ago, every year, tens of thousands of Vietnamese people with economic conditions chose to go abroad for medical examination and treatment. Not because our technology is weak, but because they do not fully believe in service quality and the caring environment.
Ten years later, those same people are returning to Vietnam to use medical services. Many international patients have also chosen Vietnam as a reliable destination due to guaranteed quality, quick medical examination and treatment time and reasonable costs.
"This is the most objective evidence of changes in the country's health sector" - said the Deputy Minister.
The Deputy Minister emphasized that the Vietnamese medical examination and treatment system has gone through a period of extensive transformation, gradually moving towards modern quality management standards and international integration.
According to Mr. Thuan, the development of a culture of patient safety and continuous improvement methods. From incident reporting activities, death examination, drug and treatment councils to patient satisfaction surveys, hospitals have switched from the reporting model for enough to the reporting model for learning and drawing experience.
The rate of serious incidents has decreased, many clinical events have been detected early, many procedures have been standardized, opening a new phase of risk management in hospitals.
In addition to the achieved results, the leaders of the Ministry of Health pointed out many shortcomings such as overload at end-line hospitals, tedious medical examination and treatment procedures, abuse of drugs - testing - techniques, quality differences between levels, shortage of high-quality human resources and financial mechanisms that have not created strong momentum for quality.
"These shortcomings are not unique to Vietnam. This is a common challenge for many developing healthcare systems, but it is also an opportunity for us to make a breakthrough," Deputy Minister Thuan emphasized.
Target by 2035 to meet regional standards and approach international standards
Mr. Ha Anh Duc - Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health - said that the goal of the health sector is to build a high-quality, safe, effective, fair medical examination and treatment system that meets regional standards and approaches international standards by 2035.
In which, specific goals are expected to include 100% of central hospitals meeting advanced national standards; linking hospital rankings with payment mechanisms; establishing independent hospital quality assessment units; synchronously deploying the national medical incident reporting system. At the same time, it increases the participation of patients in assessing service quality.
The period of 2026 - 2030 is identified as the pivotal time to move towards meeting international standards, creating a solid foundation for improving people's health.
