Worthy investment for 3 gateway hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City

At the working session with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on April 16, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee continued to propose that the Central Government consider allocating medium-term public investment capital for the 2021-2025 period to implement the project of purchasing equipment for 3 gateway hospitals: Cu Chi Regional General Hospital, Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital and Thu Duc Regional General Hospital with a total investment of VND 4,500 billion.

Disbursement and regulation of public investment capital

Three hospital projects were started in 2021. Of which, the project to build a new Thu Duc Regional General Hospital has the highest total investment, 1,915 billion VND, with a scale of 1,000 beds with specialized departments and modern medical equipment.

The hospitals are located at the gateway of Ho Chi Minh City, playing a role in reducing the load on end-line hospitals and inner-city areas. According to the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, the construction components of the hospital projects will be completed by the end of 2023. In order to promote comprehensive investment efficiency and ensure the improvement of the quality of medical examination and treatment commensurate with the scale of a regional general hospital, timely investment in specialized equipment is extremely necessary. Therefore, the City People's Committee has issued documents recommending that the Central Government consider allocating medium-term public investment capital for 2021 - 2025 to implement the project of purchasing equipment for the above 3 hospitals.

Đầu tư xứng tầm cho 3 bệnh viện cửa ngõ TP HCM - Ảnh 1.

The new building of Thu Duc Regional General Hospital has completed about 70% of the progress. Photo: NGUYEN THUAN

In response to the above proposal, the Prime Minister requested Ho Chi Minh City to continue to accelerate and complete the disbursement of VND1,500 billion in public investment capital in 2023 for the three hospitals above to ensure compliance with regulations. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Ministry of Finance should coordinate with Ho Chi Minh City to promptly review, consider, and regulate capital sources from other projects with slow disbursement or from the 2024 capital plan to allocate additional budget for the projects.

The Prime Minister requested the city’s health sector to prepare well in terms of human resources and management apparatus to be ready to put the hospital into operation; promote public-private partnership, mobilize social resources to equip machinery and equipment on the basis of harmonious benefits and shared risks among the state, hospitals, businesses and people.

Gateway hospital with helipad gradually taking shape

On April 17, reporters from the Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper recorded the reality at hospital projects at the gateway to Ho Chi Minh City. Under the sweltering heat, a bustling, urgent atmosphere took place at the Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City). Next to the old building, the construction of the new 14-storey hospital building is rushing to complete the final stages. Mr. Huynh Viet Hung, Director of the Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital project, said that up to this point, the project has basically completed more than 70% of the construction volume.

Right in the old administrative building in front of the hospital, a series of administrative departments have been moved to new locations, leaving only the office of Dr. Dang Quoc Quan, Director of Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital. "There is a new office, but I still sit here to "share the joys and sorrows" with my colleagues, both managing the general operations of the hospital and "rolling" the site over in parts for the construction unit to work on," said Dr. Quan.

Taking us on a tour, the leader of Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital said that the project is gradually being completed, behind the building, the 3 blocks of 14 floors are basically finished. Currently, the new hall and the Infection Control Department are operating. On the top floor, the helipad has also taken shape. Next to it, two new administrative buildings have also been put into use for doctors and nurses to work. In the old building, the Examination Department and inpatient treatment departments are still operating. At the end of June, it is expected that the internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and pediatrics departments will hand over the site for construction.

It is expected that after completion by the end of 2023, the new Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital will have a technical infrastructure scale of 1,000 beds and a modern 500-bed inpatient area. The hospital has a helipad to meet the needs of air emergency. In addition, the hospital will also create land to build an additional 500 inpatient beds when there is a need for expansion.

Doctor Quan said that while waiting for operation, the hospital has just installed a system of 12 air conditioners in the old Examination Department to create comfort for patients coming for examination. Currently, the hospital receives 1,500 outpatients and 350 inpatients every day. To improve the expertise of the medical staff and meet upcoming needs, the hospital is sending 130 doctors to study to improve their qualifications. The hospital is also promoting the invitation of leading experts and professors to cooperate in providing professional support and technology transfer, both serving on-site treatment and training students from universities and colleges for internships when the new facility comes into operation.

Dr. Nguyen Minh Hoang, Head of the Dialysis Department, said that there are currently 20 kidney dialysis machines, operating 3 shifts a day with 120 patients. When the new building is operational, 40 new machines will be installed to meet patient needs.

"We have been preparing facilities, human resources and 30 departments will have integrated units to meet the hospital's requirements to be upgraded from a grade 2 general hospital to a grade 1 general hospital in the near future according to the standards of the Ministry of Health" - Dr. Quan emphasized.

Looking forward to new equipment

In the remaining two projects, Cu Chi Regional General Hospital and Thu Duc Regional General Hospital, the construction progress has also reached about 70%. Doctor Cao Tan Phuoc, Director of Thu Duc Regional General Hospital, said that as a gateway hospital of Ho Chi Minh City, every day it receives about 2,600 to 2,700 patients for examination and treatment during peak season, with about 600-650 inpatients. Currently, the hospital has performed modern techniques, from blood filtration, plasma exchange to cerebral vascular stent placement...

Although the number of patients is increasing, the hospital's infrastructure is seriously deteriorating, even the wastewater treatment system is having many problems. "The facilities are deteriorating, but the medical examination and treatment process, specialized techniques and the attitude of medical staff are always improving. Therefore, the number of patients coming to the hospital is still increasing by about 15% - 20%" - Dr. Phuoc said.

In November 2021, Thu Duc Regional General Hospital started construction of a new 500-bed area, including 50 ICU beds, 12 pediatric intensive care beds, with a construction area of over 78,000 m2 with 10 floors and 1 basement. There are 18 operating rooms and 15 other departments. After the new area is put into operation, the hospital will repair the old building to ensure the total hospital size is 1,000 beds.

According to Dr. Phuoc, before construction began, the hospital had more than 700 employees, but to accommodate the new building, the hospital made a project and was approved by the Department of Health to increase the total number of medical staff to 1,020. The hospital organized a civil servant recruitment exam to ensure that there was enough human resources to operate as soon as the project was completed.

It is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, but currently, Thu Duc Regional General Hospital lacks a lot of equipment and machinery. The hospital has sent a statistical report on the equipment that needs to be purchased to the Department of Health, estimating the purchase cost at about 1,500 billion VND.

"Although there is a lot of work to do while building a new building and operating the old building, the team of doctors and hospital staff always ensure medical examination and treatment for the people. They are very happy and look forward to the new building being put into operation. I hope the government can support the project to be put into operation soon so that people can receive better health care" - Dr. Phuoc expressed.

Recommended 5 times

The Ho Chi Minh City health sector planning project from now until 2020 and vision to 2030 identifies 6 key projects. Among them are 5 hospital projects (City Children's Hospital, Oncology Hospital, Hoc Mon Regional General Hospital, Cu Chi Regional General Hospital, Thu Duc Regional General Hospital) and the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine project. Currently, the City Children's Hospital and Oncology Hospital are in operation.

Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee had sent five official dispatches reporting and recommending the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance to allocate central budget capital for the 2021-2025 period to invest in the three aforementioned gateway hospital projects with a budget of VND4,500 billion.

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