VietNamNet Bridge - The government has decided to spend VND22 trillion, equivalent to $1 billion, to build two hospitals in the north and three in the south, which will be the most modern hospitals in Vietnam.

Specifically, two branches of the Bach Mai and Vietnam-Germany hospitals with 1,000 beds each will be built in the northern province of Ha Nam.

In the south, three new hospitals will be rebuilt completely, including the Children's Hospital 1, the Tumor and Cancer Hospital and the Trauma and Orthopedics Hospital.

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the media yesterday, December 26, that more than 200 district-level hospitals and over 50 provincial-level hospitals have been put into use recently. From now through 2015, a series of central, provincial, district level hospitals will be inaugurated.

A branch of the Cancer Hospital with 800 beds is about to open. The construction of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh district, Hanoi, has been kicked off, Tien said.

To increase the number of hospital beds and reduce overloads at big hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City, the Ministry of Health has implemented the project to build satellite hospitals in 36 provinces with five wards: cardiology, orthopedics, cancer, obstetrics and pediatrics.

These provincial level satellite hospitals will be able to perform highly technical operations so patients will not have to be transferred to central-level hospitals in Hanoi and HCM City.

Le Ha