For more than a decade, Mr Nguyen Van Minh and his family would fly in and out of Singapore for their annual health check-ups and medical treatments, his daughter recalled.

Mr Minh, a businessman now aged 61, realised that getting overseas medical care was what the privileged could afford to do, and aspired to build a hospital in Vietnam so that every Vietnamese may easily get healthcare services of a high standard.

In 2011, he set up Hanh Phuc International Hospital, located in the Binh Duong province near the border of Ho Chi Minh City. The 258-bed hospital is targeted at women and children, and specialises in obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics and neonatology, among others.

The hospital was also set up in consultation with Thomson Medical Centre to be the first “Singapore standard” hospital in the country, especially in areas of nursing and patient-care standards. Two years later, Hanh Phuc set up a clinic in the city, providing similar medical services in obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics and general practice.

Mr Minh’s daughter Nguyen Thuc Anh, 35, told TODAY that the hospital was set up to ease the patient load at public hospitals. They expected the demand for high-quality healthcare to rise in tandem with the country’s increasingly affluent population, she added.

The resident population and economy were growing quickly in post-war Vietnam. More of the younger Vietnamese were keen to start families, but the public hospitals for women and children could not keep up, and “service quality standards were compromised to keep healthcare services affordable”, Ms Thuc Anh said, adding that Singapore has been one of the top destinations for Vietnamese seeking medical assistance.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in Vietnam on a four-day official visit, said on Tuesday that there are work opportunities for Singaporeans in Vietnam. Singapore companies have also invested in the services industries there such as healthcare, and in the manufacturing sectors such as food and electronics components.

Thomson Medical Centre, for instance, worked with Hanh Phuc to co-develop operational procedures and policies for the nurses and non-medical departments. “This (makes) sure that Hanh Phuc can inherit the operational standard and system from Singapore, while still being able to retain the advantages of local standard practices,” Ms Thuc Anh said.

Medical consultants from Singapore hospitals and medical centres were also roped in. For example, Dr Tay Eng Hseon, former chairperson of the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital medical advisory board, served as the chairman of the medical advisory board in Hanh Phuc.

In the beginning, the critical departments were also managed by Singaporean directors with concrete experience in the Singapore healthcare system, Ms Thuc Anh said.

Most of them have left, but among those who stayed on was Dr Tay’s sister, Ms Tay Huan Huan, director of the specialist clinical centres at Hanh Phuc. She found it “very easy” to live in Vietnam: “It’s a simple place and the people here are friendly.”

Hanh Phuc has plans to build a network of specialised medical facilities for women and children across Vietnam, which will continue to be benchmarked against Singapore’s standards. Ms Thuc Anh said: “Singapore is the quintessential centre of global medical practice. We believe that the medical standards adopted by Singapore are friendly and relevant, especially to a country like Vietnam.”

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by SIAU MING EN

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