Dong Nai provides free health checkups to over 3.5 million people

On the afternoon of October 14, the Dong Nai Department of Health held a conference to review healthcare activities during the first nine months of 2026 and outline tasks for the final three months of the year. Attendees included leaders of the Dong Nai Department of Home Affairs and Dong Nai Social Security, representatives of Dong Nai City Police, and relevant departments and agencies.

Representative of the Department of Health reports on healthcare activities in the first nine months and outlines tasks for the final three months of 2026. Photo: Hanh Dung

According to the Department of Health, by the end of September, more than 3.5 million people across the city had received free periodic health checkups or screening examinations, including examinations and treatment covered by health insurance. This represented 79.2% of the population. Of these, more than 1.1 million people had health information available in the Electronic Health Book on VNeID, while data from more than 650,000 health checkup records had been integrated into the Ministry of Health’s health examination database.

Efforts to strengthen grassroots healthcare have continued. The city has transferred 95 commune-level health stations and 176 satellite health station sites to commune- and ward-level People’s Committees for management under the two-tier local government model. The healthcare sector currently employs nearly 20,000 civil servants, public employees and workers, with 10.5 doctors and 30.4 hospital beds per 10,000 people.

Delegates attend the conference. Photo: Hanh Dung

In medical examination and treatment, healthcare facilities received more than 9 million patient visits. Advanced medical techniques continued to be introduced, helping improve the quality of treatment locally. Dong Nai General Hospital was recognized as meeting the requirements to perform kidney retrieval and transplantation using kidneys from living donors and brain-dead donors. The hospital also signed an agreement to implement in vitro fertilization (IVF) services and opened an Ear, Nose and Throat Center.

Food safety also remained a priority. No food poisoning incidents were reported across the city during the first nine months of the year. Inspections uncovered 51 establishments violating food safety regulations, resulting in total fines of more than VND776 million. Inspections of collective kitchens, school canteens and street food businesses were further strengthened.

Despite these achievements, the situation involving infectious diseases remained complicated, particularly outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease, dengue fever and rabies.

A representative of Dong Nai City Police answers questions from healthcare facilities about integrating data from public health checkups. Photo: Hanh Dung

In the final months of the year, the healthcare sector will focus on accelerating health checkups for all residents, strengthening grassroots healthcare capacity, controlling disease outbreaks, ensuring food safety and developing specialized medical techniques. These efforts aim to gradually improve the quality of healthcare services and better meet residents' needs for healthcare and health protection across the city.

At the conference, leaders of the Department of Health, Dong Nai City Police and Dong Nai Social Security discussed and answered questions from healthcare facilities concerning health insurance-covered medical services, public health checkups and digital transformation.

Director of the Department of Health Do Thi Nguyen delivers the conference’s concluding remarks. Photo: Hanh Dung

Concluding the conference, Director of the Department of Health Do Thi Nguyen emphasized that the final three months of the year would be decisive in meeting the healthcare sector’s targets. She called on the department’s specialized divisions and healthcare facilities to focus on fulfilling their assigned targets, proactively prevent and control disease outbreaks, ensure food safety and adequate medicine supplies, provide healthcare for older people, and urgently complete proposals and plans for submission to the Dong Nai City People’s Committee.

She also stressed the need to improve the quality of medical examinations and treatment at all levels of the healthcare system, from grassroots facilities to specialized care, and to continue strengthening the capacity of health stations to ensure the successful implementation of the public health checkup campaign. Regional medical centers that are not being dissolved must urgently develop plans and proactively implement measures to convert into regional general hospitals, she said. They must also proactively ensure adequate supplies of medicines and medical supplies for residents' medical examinations and treatment, without disruptions that could cause difficulties or adversely affect residents' interests. Unnecessary referrals to higher-level hospitals should be reduced, and a healthcare workforce combining strong political and ethical qualities with professional expertise should be developed to meet increasingly demanding responsibilities.

Specialized hospitals, meanwhile, should continue transferring advanced medical techniques to lower-level facilities and strengthen domestic and international cooperation to enhance their capabilities. The goal is to make these hospitals trusted healthcare destinations for local residents and reduce the need for Dong Nai patients to seek treatment at higher-level hospitals elsewhere.

In the final months of the year, the healthcare sector will urgently implement periodic health checkups for residents to meet the established targets and reorganize regional medical centers in accordance with regulations.

By Hanh Dung – Translated by Mai Nga, Minho