43% of Vietnamese Dissatisfied with Doctors’ Attitude: World Bank Survey

Up to 42.5% of Vietnamese in a survey conducted by the World Bank (WB) in four provinces in 2014 and 2015 said that they were not satisfied with the attitude of doctors while the majority of respondents were displeased at the poor bathroom hygiene, local media reported August 27 from a conference in the central Danang city on improving public services. The WB survey evaluated four aspects in service provision, namely accessibility, responsiveness, service cost, and feedback mechanism, while also focusing on the granting of certificate for land use, land transfer, business, construction, and healthcare services. Achim Fock, director managing WB’s investment portfolio in Vietnam, said at the event that the authorities are responsible for serving citizens well, and to do so, they have to understand what the citizens are thinking. The survey aimed to help government and service providers improve the quality of public services, Mr. Fock noted. The survey this time highlighted the weak medical services in Vietnam, a situation mainly caused by overload at big hospitals and the insufficient capacity of local clinics. The poor quality is most evident in the rampant cases of several patients having to share one bed. Particularly, the proportion of patients having to share beds was 32.2% in Vinh Phuc, 13.6% in Thanh Hoa, and 29.3% in Binh Dinh. Respondents in the survey also pointed out that healthcare services are yet to cater to office workers seeking to get check-up on the weekend or at the early hours on work days. Many people would simply visit the hospitals when they need but there is no system for booking an appointment beforehand. Vietnam’s public health expenditure is leaned toward low-cost, centralized purchases, thus shifting preference to affordable generics over branded drugs, and basic medical devices instead of high-end technology. This means that public healthcare services rely heavily on state funding while private services could be unaffordable for a large part of the population. (thesaigontimes.vn Aug 27)