VinMec establishes state-of-the-art clinic to serve Phu Quoc’s growing population

VinMec Healthcare is expanding its hospital operations by building a clinic to complement its existing hospital on the country’s Phu Quoc Island. The aim is to augment the company’s healthcare services as the island expects the population to grow to 550,000 in 2030.

The Vinmec Phu Quoc Duong Dong Clinic was launched on the eighth anniversary of putting up Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital in June 2023. For the healthcare group, the six-storey clinic is not just an extension of the hospital but also provides high-quality and efficient medical services at a reasonable cost.

Amidst its projected population growth, Phu Quoc Island is planned to turn into a first-class urban area by 2025 and become a national and international island tourism destination.

“This means it will increase the demand for medical care in terms of service variety and quality of care,” said Vinh Le, managing director of Vinmec Phu Quoc.

Inside the clinic are 40 fully functional rooms for medical examination and treatment activities including emergency procedures, endoscopy, scans, and tests.

The 1,200-square-metre clinic also provides a variety of healthcare services for both adults and children such as pediatric examination and vaccination, obstetric and gynaecological examination and assisted reproduction, outpatient orthopaedic examination, and others.

Vinmec boasts of its telemedicine services. Specifically, Vinmec Phu Quoc has applied expert consultation for tele-stroke and myocardial infarction through online consultations. It also offers its own Myvinmec application for telehealth consultations.

“Combined with our well-trained transport team, using evacuations as diverse as ambulances, aircraft and helicopters. We have successfully resolved hundreds of cases with critical emergencies over the years,” said Le.

The Vinmec clinic also helps Vinmec Phu Quo’s strategy to expand emergency capacity on the island. Its international emergency unit has three main strategies:

(i) forming a telemedicine network with hotels on the island, and providing first aid training for hotel staff for early detection and stabilization of patients;

(ii) building an emergency coordination centre at Vinmec Hospital to initially support hotels via telemedicine, and;

(iii) training and distributing emergency personnel across Vinmec facilities on the island (such as Vinmec Duong Dong Clinic) to shorten the access time of medical staff to less than 30 minutes to all locations on the island.

Affordability and profitability

To balance high-quality services at a reasonable cost, Le said they optimise their patients’ prices through an insurance policy with the government.

During the clinic’s opening, Vinmec also promoted discounts of about 30 to 50% off specialist medical examinations and treatment fees with appointments.

Le also offers incentives to its patients at Vinmec Phu Quoc Hospital such as free transportation when going between the clinic to the hospital.

2026 goals

Le said the two leading changes in people’s medical needs are treating chronic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer, which increases the demand for quality treatment and care.

“Our vision is to compete to bring value to Vietnamese patients; bring world-class service to Vietnamese people; and become a strong regional competitor to any health system. The ultimate goal is to bring the highest value to patients,” said Le.

For Vinmec Phu Quoc, the ultimate goal is to develop into a medical tourism destination in Southeast Asia whilst focusing on treatment services in obstetrics and artificial insemination (IVF), plastic surgery, illness prevention, orthopaedic trauma as in sports medicine.

Vietnam has great potential in medical tourism due to its affordable medical services, unlike other Southeast Asian destinations such as Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. For instance, a heart bypass surgery costs US$10,000 to US$15,000 in Vietnam compared to Thailand, where it costs from US$25,000 to US$30,000.

Vietnam’s tourism department is eyeing to attract 300,000 foreign visitors every year, with Ho Chi Minh City being the preferred destination for 40% of these foreign medical visitors.

The number of international arrivals to Vietnam in 2022 amounted to 7 million, which is a substantial increase compared to the year before. But this figure remains notably lower, 79.7% lower than in 2019. The Vietnam government eyes to develop US$2b from medical tourism per year.

Source healthcareasiamagazine.com