Hanoi hospitals seek external funding

Hospitals managed by Hanoi are looking to equitisation to raise capital and upgrade services and equipment

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said that Hanoi “stands ready to sell stakes of the city’s public hospitals under the government’s policy to equitise state-owned enterprises.”

The money collected from the equitisation will be used for raising the quality of treatment services and upgrading hospitals.

Chung added that all information regarding investment and equitisation will be made transparent and public.

“Some Singaporean investors are expressing interest in buying stakes in some hospitals. They are also exploring investment opportunities in areas such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal treatment, as well as radiation oncology and a number of modern technologies,” Chung said at a recent “Meet Canada” seminar in Hanoi, which aimed to attract investment capital from Canadian investors to Hanoi.

At present, Hanoi has 15 public hospitals (see box) – none of which have been hitherto equitised.

“When receiving any queries from local and foreign investors, myself, the municipal Party Committee chief, and leaders of relevant departments such as Planning and Investment or Industry and Trade will directly help solve any issues that arise. We even work with them outside working hours,” Chung said.

In Vietnam, only one public hospital, the Central Transport Hospital in Hanoi’s Dong Da district, has been equitised. Some 51.43 per cent of the hospital’s stock was acquired by locally-owned T&T Group JSC. About 30 per cent of the hospital’s stakes are held by the state and the remaining stakes belong to hospital employees.

Hanoi is also seeking investments in new hospitals and upgrades to its existing ones. In late 2016, in a process taking only 26 days, Hanoi’s authorities approved and licensed a Japanese-backed project to build a hospital in the city’s Tay Ho district. This hospital, to be specialised in treating cancers and digestive diseases, commenced construction in December 2016 and is scheduled to officially commence operation in the first quarter of 2018.

Hanoi has also established a public bidding centre for medical equipment. The centre, the first of its kind in Vietnam, began operating in October 2016.

Chung added that Hanoi is co-operating with France, Japan, and other nations to improve its healthcare sector. The city is working with Japan to establish an automatic medicine distribution centre, which is expected to become operational in June 2018. The centre will provide medicine to all city-based healthcare establishments and pharmacies.

“We want to create a breakthrough in Hanoi’s healthcare sector so that by 2020, the city will become the country’s healthcare hub,” he said.