Mobile clinics assist COVID-19 treatment at home

Many COVID-19 patients in HCM City are being treated at home, with the help of medical personnel from mobile clinics. This is one of the measures to reduce hospital overload in Vietnam’s largest COVID-19 hotspot at the moment.

Two days ago, Huynh Ngoc Anh of a mobile clinic and Nguyen Tuan Anh, a volunteer patient transporter, helped a 63-year-old COVID-19 patient in Thu Duc city, get to the hospital. Mrs. Mai is paralyzed, weak, and cannot walk. The two men had to carry her through small alleys to the ambulance,

Tuan Anh said, 'We have to carry patients to and from the car. Most of them are emergency cases. We feel very sorry for them and want to do all we can to help them.'

Doctor Truong Nguyen Doan Hanh, Head of a mobile clinic in Thu Duc, part of HCM city, said the clinic began operating last Monday. There are currently 32 medical facilities receiving COVID-19 patients in Thu Duc. Since the number of patients being treated at home is small, municipal authorities decided to set up mobile clinics.

In addition to its permanent support staff, Hanh’s mobile clinic has 1 doctor and 2 medical students from the Military Medical Academy who will assist with patient treatment.

'There might be unexpected developments. Patients might not have any underlying diseases but about 10% of them can develop breathing difficulties very quickly. Clinic staff will put them on respirators, evaluate their vital signs, and quickly transport them to hospital if necessary', Doctor Hanh added.

There are 15 mobile clinics in Binh Chanh district. Each of them has a doctor, medical assistants, and support staff. Doctor Pham Van Tuan, Director of the Binh Chanh clinic, said each COVID-19 patient who is being treated at home receives a health care bag. Medical staff will make regular visits to the patient to give them a medical prescription, measure their blood oxygen level, give them oxygen, conduct screening procedures, and contact the hospital if the patient’s condition becomes serious.

Doctor Tuan revealed that 'We had 6 mobile clinics taking care of 250 COVID-19 patients. Recently, we set up some new clinics and now we have 15. '

Over the past week, HCM city has established more than 400 mobile clinics serving at-home COVID-19 patients. If the pandemic continues to spread, more mobile clinics will be set up to ensure that each clinic has between 50 and 100 patients to take care of.