The ‘Hospital At Home’ program has recently become more popular in Ho Chi Minh City thanks to the participation of public hospitals.

Besides private hospitals offering health checks for both locals and foreigners in the city, public infirmaries have also offered the service to provide care and brief diagnoses at home for elderly patients and those who have difficulty walking.

However, not all public hospitals have provided the service, with only Thong Nhat Hospital, Go Vap Hospital, the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital and Binh Thanh Hospital offering it.

The four above hospitals set out different requirements for patients to benefit from the service, which is applicable to those having Vietnam’s health insurance.

Thong Nhat Hospital has the most relaxed requirements for patients, and the facility has offered the service for three months.

Patients and their relatives only need to make a phone call and Thong Nhat Hospital doctors will make an appointment. It has helped over 150 patients in the past months.

For Go Vap Hospital and the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, patients must visit the facilities to complete administrative procedures and health records first.

Relatives of patients also come to the hospitals to register for at-home health checks and make an appointment.

Binh Thanh Hospital provides limited chances for health checks at home since its managers decide on and approve each case, and only patients who have health records with difficulty in walking are qualified.

The prices for each health check at home range from VND150,000 to VND500,000 (US$7-23) at different hospitals.

Ho Chi Minh City has dozens of public hospitals, but only the four above mentioned facilities have offered the service because of the shortage of health staff.

A doctor can check on average 50 patients at an infirmary in the morning, but he can cover only two cases at home, according to a hospital director.

Dang Huy Quoc Thinh, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, admitted he was not well prepared for disputed cases at home, such as patients dying when they are being checked by doctors.

Doctors may be physically threatened by relatives of the patients who are under psychological shock.

After the hospitals pilot the service for a time, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said it will report on the service to the health ministry for promulgating regulations.

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