Detecting and preventing unlicensed medical examination and treatment is considered by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health as one of the major challenges this year, in the context that recently every week there are unlicensed facilities being fined.
On January 3, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Tang Chi Thuong said that based on the practical operations in 2023, the city needs to have more practical solutions to proactively detect and prevent unlicensed medical examination and treatment activities and violations of medical advertising.
In recent months, every week the HCM City Department of Health Inspectorate has fined many unlicensed medical facilities and medical advertising violations, many times more than before as well as compared to other provinces and cities.
In particular, in the context of social network development, many people have created websites, accounts, pages, groups on social networking platforms (Facebook, Zalo, TikTok, Youtube...) to advertise and introduce medical examination and treatment services, buy and sell drugs and medical equipment, causing many consequences to users' health.
Some people post videos under the guise of sharing medical experiences and knowledge, thereby advertising unlicensed medical examination and treatment. There are cases of impersonating doctors to advertise medical examination and treatment services, posting content and images that challenge management agencies. Many cases use images and reviews of influential people on the internet, famous artists, and advertising information on newspapers to attract and create trust for people.
According to Mr. Thuong, in addition to strengthening strict handling of violations, the health sector needs to have solutions to prevent and resolve this situation more thoroughly in the near future. In addition, people should be careful when choosing medical examination and treatment services. When accessing advertising information on social networks, do not rush to believe it immediately but need to carefully verify it through many different channels, especially the Department's Medical Examination and Treatment Information Lookup Portal to learn about the licenses of clinics and doctors, avoiding complications that endanger life.
When detecting or suspecting that a medical examination and treatment facility is operating illegally or showing signs of violations, people should call the hotline at 0989.401.155, or report via the "Online Health" application so that the Department Inspectorate can promptly detect and strictly handle the situation.
Patients crowding to wait for medical examination and treatment at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Quynh Tran
In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City will continue with important health goals. The city has planned to build a project for a high-tech health examination and screening center, becoming a regional health care center. Therefore, it is necessary to have solutions to help public hospitals become sustainable and autonomous, improve the management capacity of hospital directors, and connect practice management data between the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health and the provinces in the Southeast and Mekong Delta regions.
The Department will have specific solutions to put the 3 gateway hospitals into effective operation, coordinate with departments and branches to ensure the progress of disbursement of medical projects, and strengthen the medical information technology infrastructure towards digital transformation.
The health sector must also prepare resources to deploy expanded centralized drug bidding, ensure adequate drug supply for grassroots health care, and effectively implement the Ho Chi Minh City Pharmaceutical Industry Development Project as soon as it is approved. In addition, Ho Chi Minh City implements solutions to attract and form an effective network of community health collaborators, mobilize resources to manage the health of people in risk groups (pregnant women, newborns, children under 6 years old, adolescents, and the elderly).
The above goals, according to the Department of Health, are also the city's big challenges in the new year.
Le Phuong
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