Dark and Bright picture after equitization- Part 5: Transport Hospital, after equitization is a dead end!

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	Equitization: Heads must take responsibilities under Prime Minister for failure to fulfill assigned plans

Before equitization, the Transport Hospital was once considered to be quite reputable among the medical facilities in the capital. Photo: ST

No leader

In 2015, the Transport Hospital was the first public health unit selected to be equitized. T&T Group was a strategic investor, holding a 30% stake. However, after nearly a year, the equitization process stopped and investors (T&T Group) requested to divest.

Explaining this, Mr. Tran Trung knows that the hospital officially operated under the equitization model from January 5, 2016, after the decision of the Prime Minister.

However, in Resolution No. 05-NQ / TW of November 1, 2016, the Fourth Conference of the XII Central Party Committee stated that only equitizing public non-business units are eligible, except for hospitals and schools, the equitization of this hospital was stopped suddenly.

In the face of the above fact, the shares reduced from 51.43% to 22.07%, failing to reach the required number of shares to hold the veto here, T&T Group requested a divestment.

Up to now, the capital withdrawal has not been implemented. Therefore, the investor is not interested in the hospital's operation. Although the equitization is a health facility, there is no Board of Directors, so all decisions are not issued.

According to Tran Trung, after nearly four years, the Transport Hospital has been nearly suspended, although there have been many meetings and many recommendations and proposals made,the situation has not improved. From the end of 2016 to the present, the hospital has operated in moderation without aleader; the number of patients coming to the clinic is sparse, mainly for common diseases and health checks.

The director of the Transport Hospital also saidthat, from the end of 2016 until now, most hospitals have not been able to purchase any additional medical equipment for medical examination and treatment. The approval of the annual work plan was not implemented because the BOD did not have to decide. Not to mentionsome of the necessary contents of medical facilities such as hospital classification, signing contracts with health insurance are very difficult because no one has made a decision.

“Even the decision to increase income or Tet bonus is not made because of anyboard, the Director cannot decide. Therefore, the hospital has only tried to maintain the basic salary for its staff, leading to the fact that some qualified staff continue to apply for job transfer. The state of anxiety and depression appeared and the hospital was also powerless,”Mr. Tran Trung said.

For T&T Group, Mr. Do Quang Hien, Chairman of the Group, said that in the beginning, the group was very enthusiastic and also cherished many plans and ambitions when deciding to pour capital into the Transport Hospital because this is a direct health service for people.

According to Mr. Hien, T&T Group worked with Japanese consultants to develop a comprehensive restructuring plan of the hospital, training and investing in the model of a high-quality, professional hospital. Besides, T&T has also worked with leading hospitals such as Bach Mai, Viet Duc to have the cooperation in human resources and medical staff.

However, after a period of implementation, the Group was met by the tightening mechanism. Specifically, with the policy of not reducing state capital at the Transportation Hospital, the hospital's shareholder structure will include more than 70% of state capital and nearly 30% of strategic investors' capital.

“With nearly 30% of the capital, it will be very difficult for us to invest in and manage the hospital. In addition, this mechanism is also very difficult for the hospital itself because each year the hospital will cut tens of billions of VND to support operations,"Mr. Hien analyzed.

Risk of closure

After several times taking family members to visit the Hospital for Transport, the reporter witnessed a rather deserted fact here. Accordingly, within two hours a day in early March (the time before social distancing wasimplemented) in the diagnostic imaging area located in a modern seven-story high-tech building, newly put into exploited for more than four years, observing the reporter noticed that only sporadic patients came to perform medical indications. Although there is an objective factor that the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic is raging making patients visitmedical facilities less, but according to some staff here, this has lasted for longer than a few days.

It is known that the technical professional building of seven floors and two basements, with a synchronous technical infrastructure system, the total construction area of nearly 17,000m2 with 200 beds was inaugurated in 2015, with modern equipment, causing many large hospitals in the country to dream, but now the reuse capacity is at a pathetic level.

If compared with some specialized hospitals or district hospitals like Medical University Hospital; Post Hospital; or Dong Da Hospital, the difference is quite large. The absence of a Transport Hospital may be somewhat relaxing for patients, but for the medical staff here, it is really insecure.

A female nurse contacted by the reporter said that the general mood of many employees like her was restless;they do not know when the hospital would stop operating.

It should be added that, before equitization, the Transport Hospital was once considered to be quite reputable among the medical facilities in the capital, with the advantage of hem dialysis; Phaco cataract surgery.

Talking about the moderate operation of the Transport Hospital, the Director of Tran Trung Hospital said that it would be difficult to maintain the hospital operating in normal conditions, not to mention development or quality enhancementof medical examinations and treatment.

Evidence for this, through the financial report figures, show that the years the hospital is often in a state of loss. After the first six months of 2019, the Transport Hospital continued to report a loss after tax of over VND15.8 billion, boosting the total accumulated loss to VND106.9 billion.

Earlier, in the first quarter of 2019, this hospital had recorded a loss of VND12.5 billion. Thereby, raising the total accumulated loss of the hospital to over VND103 billion. In 2018, the Transport Hospital lost VND33.08 billion, an increase of VND1.62 billion compared to 2017.

Therefore, the solution proposed by the transportation hospital leader is that the State repurchases all sold shares to re-establish the hospital, helping stabilize the operation of one of the medical examinations and treatment facility of the capital, but this proposal has not been approved.

"If this situation persists forever, the hospital will face the risk of closing and stopping operation," said the director of the Transport Hospital.