During a visit to the University Medical Centre yesterday, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that the two hospitals' doctors would provide professional treatment advice to satellite hospitals through telemedicine.

With use of IT and imaging networks, the city hospitals carrying out the satellite hospital programme will no longer need to send many doctors to those sites outside HCM City.

Cho Ray Hospital has satellite hospitals in the provinces of Tien Giang, Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai.

The University Medical Centre, which was initially reluctant to carry out the programme for fear that it would lose too many doctors, will implement the programme this year.

Tien suggested that the centre chose the Mekong Delta because most outpatients who visit the centre were from there.

Many of the patients take a bus at dawn to come to the medical centre and wait for health exams.

Tien said that it was also important that HCM City hospitals reduce their patient overload, she said, adding that the load was still too high despite shorter exam procedures and expanded facilities.

The centre, for instance, starts health examination at 6 am, and examines and treats nearly 5,000 outpatients every day.

The number of outpatients a day at Cho Ray Hospital is more than 4,000. It also has more than 2,400 inpatients daily.

Tien asked the three centrally managed hospitals to pay more attention to expanding their health examination facilities to meet demand.

Yesterday, Tien also checked Thong Nhat, Cho Ray and the University Medical Centre's progress on implementing their projects to reduce patient overload.

(Source: VNS)