Deputy Chief of the Office of the HCMC Health Department Le Thien Quynh Nhu reported that this July, there were over 30,000 patients in HCMC using their chip-based citizen ID card to register for medical examination and treatment under health insurance (accounting for 4.2 percent), compared to only 0.8 percent this April. 87 percent of them were successful when necessary health insurance information is easily accessed.
All public hospital except for Nhan Ai Hospital and the leprosy treatment unit as well as all private hospitals (excluding cosmetic clinics) in HCMC accept chip-based citizen ID cards in replacement of traditional health insurance card.
After one year carrying out the project ‘ Smart Healthcare from 2021-2025’, the heath sector in HCMC has been able to apply e-medical records in their operation and developed big data on the health and disease patterns of city dwellers.
In 2021, the HCMC Health Department cooperated with the municipal Information and Communications Department to pilot the software to collect medical data of over 5,000 residents in Ward 27 of Binh Thanh District.
It is planned that the city will officially establish e-medical profiles for its dwellers, beginning with the highly vulnerable (people over 50 years old or underlying medical conditions). More IT applications like ‘Online Medical Care’, ‘Hospital Search’, ‘Medical Examination Self-registration’, medicine price looking-up, cashless payment, and ‘Survey on Patient Satisfaction with Medical Services’ will be launched by 2025.
The application ‘teleconsultation’ is now being piloted in 48 grassroots clinics for senior doctors in major hospitals to deliver professional support. AI is used more to upgrade the medical examination and treatment capacity of the medical staff.
As to Covid-19 prevention and control tasks, HCMC has launched a system to manage quarantined individuals and Covid-19 patients, along with medical declaration via a QR code on a smart device. This illustrates digital transformation in the patient monitoring task in the city.
In related news, the HCMC Public Security Department stressed that when Circular No.55 came into effect on July 1, 2021, when there are changes of identity information in registration books, they will be updated directly in the database and the books will be collected accordingly. No new book will be issued in those situations; instead, the police will issue a formal notice to the citizen of the collection of the household registration book. HCMC so far has collected over 56,000 books of such cases.
When citizens need confirmation on their residential status in certain situations but possess no chip-based citizen ID card, they can ask the police to fulfill this task for them via the national online public service portal or directly at any residence management units nationwide. The paper will be delivered to them within 3 business days. So far, nearly 32,500 such papers have been successfully distributed to needy citizens in HCMC.
Those owning a chip-based citizen ID card can use it as a replacement for the traditional household registration book, with no need for any further paper.
