Illustrative image (Source: suckhoedoisong.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – Hospital rankings will be publicised for the first time this year in an effort by the Ministry of Health to improve healthcare services, the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper reported.
According to the ministry's Medical Examination and Treatment Department, the ranking will enable hospitals to identify problems and urgent tasks that needed to be addressed.
To fairly assess hospitals, Deputy Director of HCM City's Health Department Tang Chi Thuong highlighted the need to set up independent quality assessment units.
The rankings were a global trend, he said, adding that the Government and Ministry of Health were working to establish these units.
HCM City was the first locality in Vietnam to establish a council to manage the quality of medical examinations and treatment. The council, under the control of the city's Health Department, included experienced doctors from hospitals in the city, Thuong said.
This shows city's efforts to improve the quality of healthcare in 2015. Inspections conducted at the end of last year by the city's Health Department at 93 hospitals revealed that 10 hospitals achieved four points (out of five) compared to only one in 2014.
Another survey also found that 62 percent of patients were satisfied with medical services.
Attitude to patients
Last week, the Ministry of Health also made spot inspections at several hospitals nationwide and asked patients to evaluate the quality of medical services and healthcare workers' attitudes towards patients.
In 2015, the health ministry kicked off a plan to improve health workers' attitudes towards patients, involving eighty hospitals nationwide.
According to patients and relatives, health workers' attitudes towards patients had improved, but hospitals needed to work harder to meet their patients' expectation. For example, waiting times for health checks or tests must be shortened.
In addition, mailboxes or hotlines for patient feedback should be set up to enhance healthcare quality.
Pham Van Tac, Head of the Department of Personnel and Organisation under the health ministry, said efforts to improve medical workers' attitudes towards patients had made progress, but their number one complaint remained hospital overcrowding.
The most important part of the plan was to help medical workers, patients and their relatives to communicate more effectively, he said.-VNA
