HCM City (VNS/VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Health plans toset up more satellite emergency stations at public and private hospitals aroundthe city to meet the increasing need for emergency assistance at people’s homesand other locations outside medicalfacilities.                                              

Thesestations are managed by the 115 Emergency Centre.

Speakingat a recent meeting held to review emergency responses outside hospitals, Dr NguyenDuy Long, the centre’s deputy head, said there are 31 stations covering all 24districts of the city.

Of them,six - Sai Gon General Hospital, Thu Duc District Hospital, District 2 Hospital,District 4 Hospital, and Linh Xuan and Linh Trung general clinics in Thu Duc district- have motorcycle emergency services.

In thefirst six months of this year 13,961 calls were made to 115 seeking emergencyassistance compared to 8,787 in the whole of 2015 when the first station wasset up at the Sai Gon General Hospital.

When 115gets a call, the operator transfers it to either the 115 Emergency Centre or asatellite station closest to the location of the caller.

Thepublic can also call the satellite stations directly if they know the numberinstead of going through 115.

A doctorand a nurse are then dispatched by ambulance or motorbike to treat the patienton the spot or bring them back to the hospital if required.

But Longsaid: “They still fail to meet the increased demand.”

There isa shortage of ambulances, with only 11 available out of which only five aremeant for daily use. The rest are used only during festivals and other majorevents in the city.

Thecentre’s connection with the satellite stations was not “good”, Long said.

He calledfor setting up a smart operation system to strengthen communication between thecentre and stations.

This willenable the centre to know which stations have ambulances available at the timeand how long the ambulance will take to reach the patient to come to theirhouse and enter feedback on the quality of emergency aid, he said.

The datawould be analysed periodically to develop the emergency network effectively, headded.

Dr NguyenHuy Thang, Chairman of the HCM City Stroke Association and head of thecerebrovascular diseases department at the People’s Hospital 115, said itwas important to strengthen communication between hospitals and the medicalemergency network to save lives, especially those with stroke.

Thehospital’s study of more than 1,000 patients with stroke it treated in 2016found that those brought by ambulance have a higher recovery rate than thosebrought by other vehicles.

However,only 10 percent were brought by ambulance.  

Le BaoHuy of Thong Nhat Hospital’s emergency department said only 8 percent of 12,000patients treated at his department came by ambulance.

AssociateProf Dr Tang Chi Thuong, Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health,said the department would suggest the municipal People’s Committee to providethe centre and stations with more ambulances.

The staffat the stations would be trained further and the department would petition theMinistry of Health to approve paramedic training courses at universities, hesaid.

In theabsence of trained paramedics in the country the stations depend on doctors andnurses from the hospitals where they are located.-VNS/VNA