Hanoi has promoted the role of medical groups to take care of Covid-19 patients at home while applying IT to better supervise them, said Director of the municipal Department of Health Tran Thi Nhi Ha at a meeting with the city's Covid-19 prevention steering committee this week.

A member of the medical team provides medicine for Covid-19 patients at home in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District distributes drugs to a patient. Photo: Tien Thanh

She admitted that facilities and equipment at grassroots healthcare stations are degraded, unable to attract high-quality human resources and meet the needs of the pandemic prevention and control.

“Therefore, thanks to IT, managing and supervising Covid-19 cases with mild symptoms at home have been rolled out in 30 districts and towns in Hanoi,” Ha stressed.

IT has been useful in helping patients make medical declaration to local authorities online, avoiding large gatherings in the local People's Committees.

Nguyen Van Chien, 65 years old, a leader of the residential group in My Dinh 2 Ward, Nam Tu Liem District told The Hanoi Times that residents in his wards can make medical declaration via the link https://forms.gle/te9DpKJ5zNsWmxPx7 or chamsocsuckhoe.yte360.com when they are infected with the novel coronavirus.

“Thanks to IT, Covid-19 patients report their illness so that the local authorities can understand and take appropriate support measures with a view of avoiding contact among patients and curbing the risk of infection,” Chien said.

“Besides making medical declaration, telemedicine is based on videoconferencing technology for remote medical examination and treatment, which helps many Covid-19 patients be treated promptly at home and reduces the risk of infection,” Tran Thi Nhi Ha shared with The Hanoi Times in an interview via phone.

Ha added that telemedicine platform has also been applied extensively in Hanoi-based hospitals for contactless treatment.

“In the current anti-pandemic phase of Covid-19, the telemedicine platform helps reduce saturation in hospitals, contributing to reducing the risk of cross infection and ensuring safe distance among patients in inpatient treatment areas, as well as among patients and medical staff,” Ha said.

She stressed that the access to the database of thousands of patients has assisted doctors in giving advice, and prescribing medicines for patients.

“Doctors can quickly perform remote medical examination as most of hospital in Hanoi has relatively good IT infrastructure and patients’ records have been digitized,” the director said.

Currently, Hanoi is a “hot spot” of Covid-19 in the country, thus all medical staff are working at full capacity but still could not keep up with the spread of the virus.

The average number of new Covid-19 cases in the capital city increased to about 30,000 infections per day this week and is forecast to continue rising, Ha reported.

Hanoi calls for joint effort

Facing the complicated situation, Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Xuan Dung suggested that localities must give priority to the task of pandemic prevention and put a higher alert in any situation.

He called for the participation of non-public medical facilities, retired doctors, and medical students in the work.

“Localities need to focus on handling administrative procedures for Covid-19 patients treated at home by promoting IT application,” Dung stressed.

“Localities need to focus on protecting high-risk groups. Do not let your guard down. If you slow down a bit, people's lives would be in danger,” the vice-chairman emphasized.