Strange as it may sound, patients will arguably be more astonished if they are nicely greeted with “good morning” by doctors or nurses than they are if shouted at by these people when visiting public hospitals in Vietnam.

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It is not uncommon for patients to feel mistreated and suffer the inconvenience of sharing beds with others at state hospitals across Vietnam, where major infirmaries in big cities are overloaded with sick people from all over the country.

Quite many Vietnamese doctors, nurses and caretakers do not behave nicely toward their patients, and usually attribute the inappropriate attitude to the huge workload they have to deal with every day.

But health workers at some major public hospitals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are trying to learn and apply model sentences to greet, thank and apologize to patients, included in a set of documents prepared by agencies tasked by the Ministry of Health.

These hospitals, including Bach Mai, Viet Duc and K in Hanoi, and Cho Ray, Thong Nhat, Nhan Dan 115 and Nhi Dong 1 in Ho Chi Minh City, signed last month a commitment to join a drive by the ministry to “change the manner and attitude of health officials to ensure satisfaction from patients.”

With the new ‘code of conduct’ in place, Vietnamese patients now have to be prepared so as not to be shocked when they are welcomed with a totally different manner when coming to state hospitals.

The attitude and manner rules are required to be followed by everyone at such hospitals, from the men in charge of the parking lots and security guards to doctors and nurses, according to the health ministry.

A doctor examines a patient at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. Photo: Tuoi Tre

The guidance includes very formal model sentences, which patients hardly expect to hear at hospitals countrywide.

“Hi Mr. An. My name is Hung, a doctor at the internal medicine department. Please rest on the bed so that I can give you a check-up. I’d appreciate your cooperation.” These are the model sentences doctors are advised to use when receiving a patient.

After seeing the patients, doctors must nicely tell them the next steps they should do and say goodbye, according to the guidance.

In actuality, doctors and nurses do not seem to have enough time, or patience, to start such long conversations with patients. These overloaded people simply communicate with patients in short sentences, or sometimes cold orders, which upset sick people.

Vietnamese patients will not be surprised if the real conversation in the above situation is something like “Rest there! OK. Done. Next!”

How would this health worker practice the model sentences with every of these patients? Photo: Tuoi Tre

A survey carried out by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper at central-level hospitals in 2014 found that doctors could only spend one minute on examining each patient as there would be always long lines of hundreds of people waiting for their turn to have the check-ups.

The health ministry, however, is determined to launch the drive as those working at public hospitals tend to treat patients as people who are there to beg for help, a fact Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien does not deny.

“We have to change such a way of thinking,” she said at a meeting about the “Changing Attitude at Hospitals” drive in Hanoi on Monday.

“The health industry must have a complete facelift in terms of manners and attitude when serving patients.”

Tien said the ministry will hold training workshops for health workers across the country to adopt the new attitude and manner.

Even when health workers behave in a friendlier way toward patients, those visiting state hospitals countrywide will still have to share sickbeds with others, with the health ministry seemingly believing that improving the attitude toward patients is more important than solving the overloading issue.

Patients rest on the floor due to the lack of sickbeds at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Health workers at hospitals that have committed to join the drive admitted to Tuoi Tre that they do not have enough time to greet patients due to excessive workloads.

At K Hospital in Hanoi, many staffers in charge of the registration office still communicated with patients in such short sentences as “sign here,” “write your address there,” or “go to block D,” a visit by Tuoi Tre on July 21 revealed.

Patients at other hospitals said while they were not shouted at by doctors and nurses, they did not hear any “thank you”, “please” or “sorry” from them either.

A leader of a hospital participating in the drive said it is really difficult to follow the exact model sentences in the guidelines when health workers are overloaded.

“Using model sentences does not mean doctors care about patients,” he said.

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