Recently, when I visited a relative who was being treated at a central hospital, I could not help but feel sad when I saw the story of the father and son. The father was 53 years old, but his skin, figure, and face were as wrinkled and wrinkled as an old man in his seventies. The son was over 20 years old, but his body was thin and his skin was pale. Because of the family's difficult economic conditions, the father and son were too absorbed in making a living in the highlands and paid little attention to their health. When the disease became serious and they went to the capital for examination, the doctors required immediate hospitalization and surgery to preserve their health. The whole family had to sell almost all their pigs and chickens and run around to raise enough money to pay the hospital 50 million VND before going to the operating table. After much persuasion, the hospital scheduled the surgery for both father and son on the same day. After the surgery, the son was in more severe pain and was given priority by his family to stay in a treatment room with a bed on request (lowest class) for 400,000 VND/day and night. The father stayed in a regular treatment room.

Patients with respiratory diseases are treated at the Central Lung Hospital. Illustration photo: nhandan.vn

The two rooms were separated by a wall, the same size, both had 10 beds, each equipped with two air conditioners. The treatment room with a custom bed had a refrigerator, a water purifier, and an air conditioner that ran all day and night; the other room had an air conditioner that was turned off day after day. In the treatment room with a custom bed and air conditioning, the patients felt much more comfortable. As for the general treatment room, although each patient was allowed to buy an electric fan as big as two hands to use, the air in the room was still stuffy because of the heat and the smell of people all around.

After 3 days in a cool air-conditioned room, the son felt sorry for his father who had to endure the heat, so he asked the medical staff to move his father to his room for treatment, and he volunteered to stay in his father's room. As soon as he finished speaking, instead of explaining gently and kindly to the patient, the medical staff said something like a reprimand: "This is a hospital, not a market, so you can move around as you please!"

After spending many days in the general treatment room, due to the hot and stuffy air, several elderly patients asked the medical staff to turn on the air conditioning for about an hour in the middle of the afternoon, but received a decisive and cold answer: "The autonomous hospital has to take care of everything, so electricity and water must be used for the right purpose, in the right place, in the right place. If any patient wants it to be cooler and cleaner, they can pay more to be transferred to the treatment room with a bed upon request!"

It is known that currently, some hospitals are in the process of implementing financial autonomy. This is the right policy, but if hospitals find every way to exploit patients to make more money and only care about rich patients, patients who are examined and treated on demand, then poor patients, patients who are examined and treated under the health insurance regime will still suffer double losses.

A humane medical system must care for all patients equally. For poor patients and patients in remote areas, hospitals must care, help, support and create conditions for them to access and enjoy convenient medical services. While the medical examination and treatment facilities and medical equipment of public hospitals are invested, built and purchased by the State, why do some hospitals still show an unfair attitude when examining, treating and caring for patients? If a medical practitioner only thinks about money, does everything to collect more money without treating poor patients equally and fairly, can the white coat preserve the purity of the soul and conscience of the doctor?

NGO MINH