40,000 Vietnamese seek treatment abroad

With Vietnam’s public hospitals stretched beyond their limits and private healthcare a fledgling sector, there may be a potential to target better off locals for medical treatment overseas. An estimated 40,000 Vietnamese a year will avoid queues, bed shortages and overworked doctors at home. Vietnam only has a few private hospitals, and people with money prefer to go overseas to better qualified doctors and a higher standard of hospital care.

With Vietnam’s public hospitals stretched beyond their limits and private healthcare a fledgling sector, there may be a potential to target better off locals for medical treatment overseas.

An estimated 40,000 Vietnamese a year will avoid queues, bed shortages and overworked doctors at home. Vietnam only has a few private hospitals, and people with money prefer to go overseas to better qualified doctors and a higher standard of hospital care.

In Vietnam, there are a few top class private hospitals and clinics, with local and overseas groups rushing to build more. But there simply is not enough supply at home.

At public hospitals waiting time averages 4 to7 hours each day and bed occupancy is up to 170 %, according to Health Ministry statistics. Public and private capacity in cancer, cardiac, orthopedic and pediatrics is severely lacking, with over worked specialists. The state put $3.4 billion into over 1,000 public hospitals last year, but the number of patients is far higher than capacity.

The private health sector is small and a bad debt problem among local banks severely limits local commercial lending. The number of private hospitals has quadrupled to 170 over the past decade, but the Association of Vietnamese Private Hospitals admits that half of these are struggling financially and may not survive.

The government answer is to attract overseas money and hospitals, with the welcome mat out to international firms to fill the gap, even promising that there will be no restrictions on qualified foreign doctors practicing in Vietnam.

Thailand’s Bumrungrad Hospital is interested, while Indonesian group Lippo wants to build 15 hospitals in Vietnam. Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare is looking at sites in Hanoi, as is Malaysia’s KPJ Healthcare. Vietnam conglomerate Vingroup, has one Vinmec hospital, and plans 9 more in the next five years.