Complicated check-up procedures and long wait times have become routine for patients at many big hospitals in Vietnam.
Waiting for the check-up at Trung Vuong Emergency Hospital
The information came to light at a meeting between the Minister of Health, Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, and doctors from Trung Vuong Emergency Hospital and Oncology Hospital in HCM City on January 15.
According to Doctor Le Thanh Chien, Director of Trung Vuong Emergency Hospital, despite allowing patients to book numbers for their waiting places through a switchboard or via the phone, administrative procedures continued to take up a lot of time.
He added that an average patient had to spend 50-75 minutes waiting to receive their number. The complete test regimen took 80 -95 minutes and patients spent another 55 minutes moving around wards. Meanwhile, the average time taken for an actual check-up was only 9 -13 minutes.
According to the board of directors of the Oncology Hospital, the hospital had applied various measures to shorten wait times, such as check-up registering through a switchboard, home care for cancer patients in the critical stages of the disease and adding Saturday and Sunday check-ups. However, the situation has not improved.
A patient had to spend up to two hours before being given medical check-up, including 40-60 minutes to complete check-up procedures at the hospital. In fact, however, many patients had to wait from early morning to the afternoon to be given check-ups. Without the complicated procedures, a patient would only need around five minutes on average to finish the preliminaries, they said.
Doctor Le Van Chien proposed that the Ministry of Health apply modern methods that would assign each patient with a code to streamline check-up registration. The code allows for medical records to be digitised and for doctors to write up prescriptions by computer. This would also save time by allowing the patients to pick up their medication at the department instead of having to rush to the hospital pharmacy.
It is estimated that this method could cut patient wait times to 5-15 minutes, and wait times for tests to 20-60 minutes, thereby increasing the time allotted for check-ups to 10-15 minutes, Doctor Chien hoped.
After proposals by the doctors, Minister Nguyen Kiem Tien said the Ministry of Health would build a standard process for check-ups and treatments for all hospitals nationwide to raise the quality of medical care and save time for patients.