The municipal Department of Health said on September 24 that all 168 health stations across the city's communes, wards and special zones would be paired with hospitals for comprehensive support.
Under the first tier, each health station will be assigned a general hospital or regional medical centre to provide ongoing support in professional expertise, administration and quality management.
The second tier will involve specialist hospitals providing expertise in specific fields across the entire network of health stations, helping establish continuous care from specialist hospitals to communities.
The programme is intended to gradually strengthen the capacity of local health stations and increase public confidence in primary healthcare services.
In the initial phase, 81 experienced general practitioners and specialists will be rotated to 37 health stations facing staff shortages. Each station will initially have at least five doctors directly involved in primary healthcare.
Hospitals have been asked to select experienced doctors whose expertise matches the needs of individual health stations.
The doctors will also serve as links between hospitals and local health stations, facilitating professional consultations, referrals and training, as well as helping handle cases beyond the stations' capabilities.
In the next phase, hospitals will assess staffing conditions and needs at each health station before proposing the number and specialties of doctors required and the duration of their rotations.
Each hospital must also appoint a senior official and a professional contact responsible for working with assigned health stations, identifying priority needs and developing specific support plans.
Doctors rotated to local health stations will receive support under policies approved by the HCM City People's Council.
The health department said the programme's effectiveness would be assessed not only by the number of doctors deployed, training sessions or consultations, but also by improvements in local healthcare capacity and public use of health stations.
As of September 21, more than five million people in HCM City had received health checks or screenings.
The department said the programme would now focus on improving the quality of examinations, completing results in electronic health records and cleaning up data to ensure the system accurately reflects the number of people examined.