Speaking at the conference, Mr. To Duc - Director of the Department of Social Protection (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said that in recent times, medical facilities of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs have strived and achieved many positive results in the work of nurturing, nursing, medical examination and treatment, orthopedics and rehabilitation for subjects, contributing to strengthening the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health.

Some Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospitals of the industry have proactively deployed many new medical services; examination and treatment activities have been increasingly improved, contributing to shortening treatment time, bringing satisfaction to the subjects...

However, due to the impacts of population aging, urbanization, climate change, natural disasters, epidemics, traffic accidents and work-related accidents, the number of people in need of health care is increasing. Of these, there are over 11.9 million elderly people; 7.2 million people with disabilities aged 5 and over; about 2.75% of poor households, 3.5% of near-poor households, about 8.8 million people with revolutionary contributions and their relatives, millions of people with mental health problems, 1.5 million children in special circumstances; more than 3.2 million beneficiaries of monthly social benefits...; about 100-120 thousand workers are at risk of occupational diseases every year and this trend is likely to increase in the coming time.

Faced with the above situation, along with the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on people's health, recently, the Party and the State have issued many policies and laws to care for the lives of people in difficult circumstances. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has also proactively and actively directed hospitals, orthopedic and rehabilitation centers; social facilities for nurturing and caring for people with meritorious services, social assistance facilities, and drug rehabilitation facilities to coordinate with medical examination and treatment facilities of the health sector to carry out the work of caring for, caring for and improving the health of war invalids and people with meritorious services to the revolution, people with disabilities, social protection beneficiaries and people in difficult circumstances at social labor medical facilities.

According to the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs is currently managing more than 600 social labor medical facilities (including 230 non-public facilities, with about 20,000 employees, including about 5,000 medical staff). Of which, there are 11 Hospitals, Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Centers (7 Hospitals; 4 Centers); over 50 facilities for nurturing and caring for war invalids and meritorious people; over 425 social assistance facilities nurturing and caring for 1.3 million meritorious people; about 41,434 social protection beneficiaries, including 11,365 children; 4,723 elderly people; 8,218 people with severe disabilities; 10,438 mentally ill people, etc.

Social labor medical facilities have a scale of more than 120,000 inpatient beds, of which Hospitals, Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Centers have about 2,000 beds, social facilities for care and nursing of meritorious people have about 1,000 beds, drug rehabilitation facilities have about 40,000 beds, and social assistance facilities have about 77,000 beds.

In the period of 2021-2023, the total number of outpatient visits at Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospitals reached 315,289; the number of inpatients reached 765,450; the number of patients undergoing orthopedic, trauma and plastic surgery reached nearly 17,000; the number of rehabilitation patients reached 468,293; the number of patients under 6 years old treated was about 38,500. More than 25,000 policy patients, poor and near-poor households and ethnic minorities in remote areas received free treatment.

Rehabilitation services are diversified, including physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy... Production of prosthetic limbs and orthopedic devices is of interest, contributing to improving the quality of rehabilitation for war invalids and people with mobility disabilities.

The sector’s nursing centers for war invalids are currently caring for and providing centralized treatment for nearly 1,000 people, most of whom are elderly, disabled, or seriously ill; war invalids with neurological, mental, or paralytic diseases… who must be regularly treated and cared for at centers and medical facilities. More than 60,000 mentally ill and mentally disturbed people in the community are being managed and provided with social work services.

Regarding drug addiction treatment and health rehabilitation, drug addiction treatment facilities are currently managing nearly 200,000 drug addicts, providing counseling to drug addicts' families on drug addiction treatment methods; initial health check-ups and medical records; testing and detecting narcotics; treatment of withdrawal, detoxification, treatment of opportunistic infections; organizing propaganda...

To improve the quality of examination and treatment of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation, and attract patients to come for examination, according to Mr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health), it is necessary to consolidate and perfect the structure and organization of medical facilities. The Director of the Department of Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) also said that there are currently medical facilities in the industry that have not been granted an Operating License, so the list of medical examination and treatment techniques has not been approved; many medical staff have not been granted a practice certificate, have not been granted a Health Insurance Examination and Treatment License, and have not signed a medical examination and treatment contract with the Social Insurance agency, leading to disadvantages for the subjects of medical examination and treatment.

For example, Can Tho Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospital has not yet been granted a license to operate medical examination and treatment due to the incomplete licensing dossier as prescribed and the lack of medical personnel with specialized qualifications; or the Rehabilitation and Support Center for Children with Disabilities is also completing the application for a license to operate (Rehabilitation Clinic).

In order to improve the quality of orthopedic and rehabilitation work in the field of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, at the conference, delegates also discussed the proposal to build a model of structure and organization of Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Hospitals; innovate to improve the efficiency of operations, quality of medical examination and treatment, and attract patients of the labor and social health system. At the same time, strengthen training, improve the quality of human resources...