Remarkable developments of Dong Nai's healthcare sector

Remarkable developments of Dong Nai's healthcare sector

50 years after the country's reunification, the network of healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel, and the quality of prevention and treatment in Dong Nai's healthcare sector have undergone remarkable developments, achieving many proud accomplishments, contributing to the overall development of the province.

No more scenes of 2-3 patients sharing a bed

The development journey of Dong Nai General Hospital - one of the two provincial-level Grade I general hospitals - is closely linked to the development of Dong Nai's healthcare sector.

In the early years after the country's reunification, the hospital had a scale of 380 beds, poor facilities, a shortage of many doctors and nurses, and inadequate and outdated machinery and equipment. The increasing number of patients often led to the hospital being overloaded, with 2-3 patients sharing a bed, and sometimes patients even had to lie under the beds or in the corridors.

Specialist Doctor II Ngo Duc Tuan, the hospital director, recalled: "When we were at the old hospital, the rooms were very cramped. The intensive care unit and operating room were located right above the drainage ditch, and in the rainy season, the water would rise. The entire Outpatient Department had only one shared restroom for both patients and healthcare staff, lacking in every aspect."

From April 30, 2015, until now, Dong Nai General Hospital has moved to a new facility in Binh Da Ward, Bien Hoa City. This was one of the most spacious and modern provincial-level hospitals invested in at that time, on par with hospitals in the Southeast Asia region.

Every day, the hospital provides outpatient examinations for about 4 thousand patients and inpatient treatment for over 1 thousand patients. The system of modern machinery and equipment is supported by a team of over 1.6 thousand healthcare officials and staff. The examination and treatment process has been replaced from manual to thoroughly applying information technology, from the registration of examinations to the payment of hospital fees. Notably, the hospital's laboratory results have been interconnected with many hospitals inside and outside the province, helping patients save a lot of time, cost, and effort.

It is worth noting that Dong Nai General Hospital has made strong developments in professional expertise. The hospital has made open-heart surgery a routine technique. Many very difficult techniques that could previously only be performed at central-level hospitals are now mastered by the hospital's doctors, saving thousands of severe and critical cases.

"We are moving towards establishing 3 centers: cardiology, oncology, and emergency. When these 3 centers become operational, they will further improve the quality of examination and treatment at the hospital in particular and the entire Dong Nai healthcare sector in general. We expect to perform kidney transplants this year and move towards transplanting many other organs," shared Doctor Ngo Duc Tuan.

Not only Dong Nai General Hospital, but also Thong Nhat General Hospital, regional general hospitals, and medical centers in the province are also making strong strides.

Prominent among them is Long Khanh Regional General Hospital. This is the first and only hospital in the province to successfully implement electronic medical records to date, moving towards a paperless hospital. The hospital is also experimenting with applying artificial intelligence to diagnostic imaging, making full use of information technology to simplify the examination and treatment process, helping patients feel secure and satisfied. For the past 7 years, the hospital has maintained good specialist clinics with the contribution of leading experts from Ho Chi Minh City who come to examine local residents. The successful implementation of the Cardiovascular Intervention Unit and the successful treatment of many acute myocardial infarction cases show the significant progress of a regional hospital in the province.

At the Ceremony to Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Vietnamese Doctors' Day (February 27) at the end of February 2025, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee NGUYEN SON HUNG requested the healthcare sector to continue conquering high and new techniques in diagnosing and treating diseases.Develop a development strategy for the provincial health sector, with a specific roadmap to improve healthcare quality. The goal is to become a high-quality healthcare center not only in the Southeast region but also nationwide.

Continuous Development

Director of the Department of Health Le Quang Trung said that over the past 50 years, the Dong Nai health sector has continuously innovated and developed, contributing to protecting, caring for, and improving the health of people throughout the province.

The healthcare system is increasingly complete from the provincial to the grassroots level, providing many options for people when they need medical examination and treatment. From a shortage of doctors, the province now has nearly 3.3 thousand doctors per 10,000 people, ranking 2nd in the Southeast region, only after Ho Chi Minh City. The quality of the healthcare workforce is increasingly being improved.

Tran Minh Dang, Head of Tan Hiep Commune Health Station (Long Thanh District), confided that compared to a few decades ago, the activities of health stations have changed significantly. In terms of facilities, the station has been invested in and renovated to be spacious, clean, and beautiful with many necessary machines and equipment. Medicines at the station are now supplied according to the station's proposals and needs, not allocated by level as before. Some medicines that people previously had to go to higher levels to get are now available at the station, so they don't have to travel far. Furthermore, at the commune health station, people enjoy full health insurance benefits, and sometimes they don't have to pay extra when they come for examination and treatment.

To improve the quality of health education communication for people in the area, doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers at health stations in the province regularly use social networks such as Zalo, Facebook, and TikTok to post monthly vaccination schedules, campaign vaccination schedules, vitamin A intake schedules, and other necessary announcements. This is a new form of communication that saves a lot of time and effort while being highly effective.

To "share the burden" with public hospitals, many private hospitals and clinics have been established in the province. The province currently has 8 private general and specialized hospitals, 90 general clinics, over 1.7 thousand specialized clinics, and other healthcare service facilities, ranking in the top 3 nationwide in terms of the number of private healthcare facilities.

As someone who regularly visits Thong Nhat General Hospital for examination and treatment of diabetes, Ms. P.T.H. (70 years old, residing in Tan Bien Ward, Bien Hoa City) confided that she is very satisfied with her medical examination at the hospital. As soon as she entered the hospital, there were staff members guiding her through the procedures, registering for examination using a smart medical Kiosk, and making automatic payments, so she didn't have to spend time waiting in long lines, pushing and shoving as before. The attitude of the doctors and nurses is also polite and dedicated.

Reported by Hanh Dung