On the afternoon of June 27, a Ho Chi Minh City delegation led by Nguyen Phuoc Loc, Vice Secretary of the HCMC Party Committee and Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of the city, visited and inspected the Phu My Regional Medical Center and the Ho Tram Regional Medical Center to assess their operations and identify future development priorities.
The Phu My Regional Medical Center is a Grade III healthcare facility with 100 beds, serving a population of about 300,000 people.
At the meeting, the center's leadership reported that it has been facing significant challenges, including a severe shortage of personnel, particularly specialist doctors. Infrastructure remains incomplete, many facilities have deteriorated, medical equipment is limited, and information technology systems have yet to meet digital transformation requirements. The referral rate at the center currently stands at 60 percent.
In response, the center proposed establishing a trauma emergency center, standardizing professional procedures, expanding training and technology transfer, and investing in medical equipment to improve the overall quality of healthcare services.
Later the same day, the delegation also surveyed the Ho Tram Regional Medical Center, a Grade II healthcare facility with 13 departments, 159 staff members and more than 220 hospital beds.
As one of the first healthcare facilities to implement a rotating physician model, the center has recorded significant improvements, with outpatient visits increasing by nearly 13 percent and inpatient admissions rising by more than 23 percent.
In less than one month, the center successfully performed 53 complex general surgery and orthopedic trauma operations, demonstrating the effectiveness of the model and strengthening public confidence.
Concluding the visit, Chairman Nguyen Phuoc Loc said Ho Chi Minh City's healthcare sector is being developed under a multi-tier, multi-polar and multi-center model aimed at achieving comprehensive healthcare coverage. The strategy seeks to gradually eliminate barriers created by geography and transportation, ensuring equal access to healthcare services for all residents.
He instructed relevant agencies to urgently prepare a proposal to upgrade the Phu My Regional Medical Center into a hospital with approximately 700 to 800 beds.
Regarding healthcare planning, he said the area is currently designated for one regional hospital and one private hospital. He stressed that the city does not differentiate between public and private investment, provided investors have sufficient capacity. If a private investor fails to meet the required conditions, land reserved for healthcare development will instead be allocated to public investment.
According to Chairman Nguyen Phuoc Loc, this is a "golden opportunity" to plan the healthcare system. He said planning must take place in advance, with a long-term vision and clearly defined priorities, to create a foundation for mobilizing investment resources.
He also instructed local authorities and the healthcare sector to base investment proposals on scientific evidence, particularly disease pattern data collected through the nationwide health screening program, to ensure investment decisions are appropriate and effective.
He further directed local authorities to prepare official housing for healthcare and education personnel to help attract and retain highly qualified professionals over the long term.
For the Ho Tram area, the chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City said healthcare development should be closely aligned with the marine economy and tourism, meeting the healthcare needs of both local residents and visitors while supporting local development.
He assigned the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health and Department of Finance to develop mechanisms providing the highest possible level of support for rotating healthcare workers serving in remote and disadvantaged areas. Based on the physician rotation model already implemented in Con Dao and Ho Tram, he called for studying its expansion to other localities to ensure that all residents, regardless of where they live, have equal access to healthcare services.
