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Bed sharing in VN’s hospitals prompts investment call
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VietNamNet Bridge – Patients sharing a single bed or sleeping in corridors at central hospitals is still a normal sight in Vietnamese hospitals.


Now, following a meeting with the Health Ministry’s officials on November 23, PM Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the health sector to further invest in grassroots hospitals and increase patient beds.

According to VNExpress online newspaper, around 40-50 patients had to lie on stretchers in the corridor of the Hanoi-based Viet Duc Hospital’s Trauma – Orthopedics Ward on November 23.

The ward’s chief, doctor Ngo Van Toan said they were victims of accidents. They were bandaged already but they have to wait for free operating-tables. “I can’t say how long they have to wait,” Toan said.

According to the doctor, patients with broken legs and broken bones had to wait because priority was given to more serious cases. After surgery, many had to lie on stretchers in the corridor because the ward didn’t have enough beds for them.

This situation was similar at the National Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. From the second to the fourth floors, patients lay in corridors, mainly dengue fever patients.

The number of examination rooms had increased from two to six, but an announcement was posted: priority to serious cases, not in registration order.

The Central Pediatrics Hospitals is always overloaded with patients. Around 2-3 children share a bed and up to 4-5 in emergency wards.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Health Ministry to invest in hospitals in provinces and districts and to increase the number of beds to 25/10,000 residents by 2015.

According to the Health Ministry, the occupancy rate of patient beds in big hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City is up to 200-250 percent. The overload at these hospitals is around 130 percent or up to 300 percent at hematology and growth-cancer wards.

The Health Ministry said that Vietnam currently has only 18 patient beds per 10,000 people and may hospitals at district levels are poorly equipped.

In addition, the imbalance of income between doctors in cities and doctors at provincial and district-level hospitals means skilled doctors tend to leave grassroots hospitals. Patients, as a result, don’t want to be treated locally.


The Health Ministry plans to build ten more hospitals in Hanoi.

PV