Hanoi (VNA) – The Health Ministry has instructed hospitals under its controland specialised clinics to establish gerontology faculties with a view to improvinghealth care services for elderly people.

DespatchNo 2244/BYT-KCB requests Health Department of provinces and centrally-runcities to draft criteria for gerontology faculties at hospitals at provincialand municipal level.

Meanwhile,hospitals under the Health Ministry’s direct management and specialisedhospitals, except children’s hospitals, follow the criteria set by theministry.

Dependingon each hospital’s scale, the gerontology faculties should account for atleast 10 percent of the hospital’s beds but should not be less than 30 beds.

TheHealth Ministry’s instruction also recommends hospitals designate functional rehabilitationspace of at least 30 sqm exclusively for elderly patients. In case a hospitalcannot afford exclusive space, it should coordinate the work of the gerontology and functional rehabilitation facultiesto ensure that elderly patients being cared for at the gerontology faculty can receive rehabilitationtreatment.

Vietnamofficially entered the phase of aging population in 2011. The country currentlyhas around 10.1 million elderly people 60 years old and above, or 11 percent ofthe population, of whom 2 million are at least 80 years old.

Itis forecast that the ratio of elderly people in the population is expected to riseto 18 percent in 2030 and 26 percent in 2050.

TheHealth Ministry approved a national action plan on health care for the elderlyin December 2016, which aimed to improve health outcomes for older people inthe 2017-25 period.

Expertssaid geriatric care in Vietnam faces a range of difficulties. An increasingnumber of older patients put an ever-growing burden on the already strugglinghealthcare fund. Most diseases that afflict older people are chronic andnon-communicable, requiring frequent check-ups, constant monitoring andmedications.

Thegeriatric healthcare component in the general healthcare system has not caughtup with the drastic demographic change.

Theaction plan aims to remedy this critical shortage by requiring that allcity-level and provincial-level hospitals have gerontology faculty.

Currently,throughout the country, only 49 out of 69 city-level and provincial-levelhospitals have gerontology faculties, and only three institutes offergerontology studies.

Accordingto the plan, authorities at all levels will need to make sure that 100 percentof elderly people have health insurance cards by 2025, and that 80 percentreceive at least one medical check-up a year and maintain up-to-date healthprofiles.-VNA