Patients with critical conditions from southern provinces are going to be cured from afar by doctors in Ho Chi Minh City instead of waiting for hours to reach the city hospitals, local news website VnExpress said Wednesday.

 

Doctors at the patients’ area will get support and instructions from those in HCMC via the Internet to diagnose and treat the patients, according to a project to be initiated in July by HCMC Health Department, the city Department of Information and Communication and several hospitals in the southern region.

 

The project will save people who need urgent medical intervention, and save the treatment fees, said doctors during a trial run of the project on Wednesday.

 

Many patients from southern provinces have died arriving at the city hospitals, said doctors attending the trial run.

 

The project thus has big realistic meaning, they said.

 

Several hospitals have been furnished with equipment for the experimental phase of the project, including Cu Chi General Hospital in the city outskirt, Gia Lai General Hospital in the Central Highlands, and the general hospitals in Ben Tre, An Giang and Kien Giang Provinces in the Mekong Delta.

 

The hospitals will be supported from a far by Tu Du Hospital for Maternal Health, the Hospital of Injuries and Orthopedics, and the Children’s Hospital No.1.

 

Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy director of the Children’s Hospital No.1, said the distance diagnose and treatment will help doctors in provinces get updated with the latest health prevention and treatment methods.

 

Le Truong Giang, deputy director of HCMC Health Department, has asked the instructing hospitals to put doctors on guard at any time day and night.

 

Giang said the department will add more details about how the plan operates and submit it to the city government.

 

The distance diagnose and treatment has been carried out in the northern region with doctors at Bach Mai Hospital and the National Children’s Hospital in Hanoi instructing their counterparts in nearby provinces.