LookAtVietnam – Those patients who want to change hospital must be responsible for any risks they incur, said members of the Ha Noi National Assembly delegation

Many deputies agreed that the draft law should have regulations disbarring patients or their family members making complaints due to risks incurred through a change in treatment location.

Deputy director of Ha Noi Health Department Nguyen Khac Hien said although patients could currently sign legal waivers removing the responsibility from their current hospital before changing location, patients often complained that the policy to waive responsibility meant that they were in effect blocked from being allowed to change hospital.

Therefore, Hien suggested that the law should have specific regulations to define the responsibilities that these patients had taken on.

Regarding the granting of health checks and treatment certificates and the licensing of medical practices capable of carrying out health checks and treatments, many deputies agreed that the certificates and licences should be renewed every five years.

Dr Nguyen Xuan Sinh, director of Trang An Hospital, suggested that licences for health check and treatment establishments should only be granted on one occasion, but authorised agencies such as the Ministry of Health or health departments should be able to carry out surprise spot-checks and have the power to examine these establishments.

Deputies proposed a new classification system for different kinds of health check and treatment establishments, with varying standards of hospitals being able to charge differential treatment fees, rather than using administrative medical levels such as district or commune-level clinics to avoid overloading.

In addition to being able to generalise best-practice through skilled upper level hospital staff with those lower down the medical pyramid, lower level medical workers needed to be able to gain experience working in higher tier hospitals, allowing them to learn new treatments and skills from more skilful colleagues, said Vice Chairwoman of the Ha Noi Medical Association Bui Thi Hiep.

On the same day, the deputies also discussed the draft law on elderly people.

The majority of deputies agreed that the scope of the draft law should be restricted to only elderly Vietnamese citizens, not foreign elderly people living in Viet Nam.

This regulation, they said, complied with related policies and laws on elderly people in Viet Nam as well as the capacity of the State budget to ensure the feasibility of the law.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News