Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has highlighted the significanceof a public private partnership (PPP) model in raising healthcarequality and easing overload at public hospitals.

The benefits ofpatients should be placed on the top of the collaboration, the ministersaid at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on March 10.

Accordingto Minister Tien, the ministry is carrying out many projects to reducehospital overload at central and grassroots levels, including those onsatellite hospitals, family doctors and health insurance coverage oftotal population.

Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the ministry’sDepartment of Medical Examination and Treatment, said the partnershipshould be established on the basis of voluntariness, equality, mutualbenefit and transparency, and within the legal framework.

It is amust for hospitals to take the initiative in work and for the ministryas well as municipal and provincial People’s Committees to supervise thecoordination, the official said.

The ministry said that publichospitals are constantly overloaded with up to 5,000 patients each daywhile private ones have yet to attract many patients despite theirefforts to improve health check-up and treatment quality.

Mostof the 170 private hospitals across the country are equipped with modernequipment and qualified medical workers, but only 40-60 percent oftheir patient beds have been used, it added.

Notably, Ho Chi Minh City-based Cho Ray Hospital has joined hands with 14 private hospitals and gained positive results.

However,unclear mechanisms in patient transfer and human resources havehindered the coordination between public and private hospitals, theconference heard.-VNA