When parents begin to grow frail, most families in Ho Chi Minh City face the same question: manage on our own, hire a domestic helper, or do we really need a nurse? Choosing wrongly does not only cost money — it can leave the patient with a complication that should have been preventable. This article follows the order that actually works: assess the need first, then look for a person.
Step 1: assess the right level of care
Answer the group of questions below honestly. The more answers that come back as “cannot do this unaided”, the higher the level of clinical skill needed.
- Can your relative walk, wash and dress themselves?
- Can they eat and drink unaided, or do they need feeding, or feeding through a tube?
- Do they have continence control?
- Are they lying in one position for long periods (a risk of pressure sores)?
- Are they on prescribed medicines that need injections, infusions, or readings to be monitored?
- Are they confused, disoriented, prone to wandering off, or agitated at night?
- Is there a urinary catheter, a feeding tube, a ventilator, or oxygen in the house?
Step 2: tell a helper apart from a nurse
This is where many families get it wrong, and it is the most expensive mistake.
| Task | Domestic helper / care attendant | Qualified nurse |
|---|---|---|
| Hygiene, eating and drinking, help with walking | Yes | Yes |
| Monitoring vital signs, recognising deterioration | Limited | Yes |
| Injections, infusions, prescribed medicines | No | Yes |
| Care of catheters and tubes, pressure sores, wounds | No | Yes |
| Acting when the patient deteriorates | Calls the family | Assesses, gives initial treatment, informs the doctor |
A simple rule: if the work involves any clinical technique at all — prescribed medicines, catheters or tubes, wounds, oxygen, a ventilator — then it has to be someone with nursing qualifications. Handing clinical technique to an untrained person is a direct risk to the patient.
Step 3: the questions to ask before you hire
- What qualifications does the carer hold, and who is clinically accountable for supervising them?
- Where is the scope of work written down — what will be done and what will not?
- If the patient deteriorates outside working hours, what is the process, and who is called?
- If the carer is suddenly unavailable, is there a replacement?
- What does the fee include, and in what circumstances do extras arise?
- Is there a daily written record so the family can follow what is happening?
What the cost depends on in Ho Chi Minh City
| Service | How it is priced |
|---|---|
| Home care, by the day | Quoted from the level of dependence and the hours needed |
| Care attendant with the patient in hospital | Quoted from the level of dependence and the hours needed |
| Doctor's home visit (periodic review) | Quoted per visit |
| Dressing changes and wound care | Quoted per visit |
The price varies with how dependent the patient is and what clinical technique is required. Someone still walking who only needs help around the house is in a quite different position from someone bedbound with a catheter and pressure sores.
Signs that the level of care needs raising, or a doctor calling
Call 115 (the emergency number in Vietnam) or go to hospital at once if your relative has: difficulty breathing, chest pain, sudden weakness or paralysis or difficulty speaking, drowsiness or not rousing when called, seizures, a high fever with shivering, or a pressure sore with pus and a fever. Beyond that, rapid weight loss, poor eating and drinking that goes on, repeated falls, and confusion increasing quickly are all signs that the level of care needs reassessing by someone qualified.
Caring for the patient means caring for the family too
Something that is rarely said out loud: the exhaustion of the main family carer is a real problem. Sleep lost over months, no time of one's own, financial strain — all of it feeds back into the quality of the care. Hiring help for part of the time, rather than carrying the whole thing until you are overwhelmed, is usually the more sustainable choice for both sides.
In Ho Chi Minh City and need a doctor or nurse at your address? Call 094 368 81 15 — calling to ask a question or to book costs nothing. GreenCare has doctors who come to examine, nurses who carry out doctor's orders (injections, infusions, dressing changes), remote consultation by video call, and a review of the medicines you are taking; an in-depth remote consultation, or any one after the first, is a paid service. For children we take examination and acute care only — not long-term care at home, and not newborns or expectant mothers. GreenCare will confirm a time slot with staff available in your district and quote the price clearly before we begin.
Book services in Ho Chi Minh City
Y Tế Xanh has its own in-house team working in Ho Chi Minh City. See the services available there and book: Y Tế Xanh in Ho Chi Minh City.
