VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City has asked for Prime Minister's permission to use funds from a VND20 trillion (over US$952 million) package to build a new paediatric hospital and an oncology hospital.

The funding package has been allocated by the Government for building specialised hospitals in the southern region.

The municipal administration said the two hospitals are key facilities that need investment in order to ease patient overload at existing hospitals. The plan is to have the hospitals operational by 2015, it said.

The estimated cost of building the hospitals is VND5 trillion ($238 million) each.

Under the plan, the new paediatric hospital with 1,000 beds will be built on an area of nearly 12.5ha in Binh Chanh District; and the new cancer hospital, also with 1,000 beds, will come up on a 5.6ha plot in District 9.

Work on the two hospitals was expected to start in the beginning of this year, but this has not happened because of ground clearance difficulties.

A report from the land clearance board in Binh Chanh District says the local administration is trying to provide compensation for 35 families affected by the project.

The oncology hospital is also stuck in ground clearance difficulties. The project would affect 40 families, one school and a business. The total area that the 40 families would have to be compensated for is 9,200 square metres.

Until now, 37 families have handed over their land to the investor. The People's Committee in District 9 is trying to get the three remaining families to vacate their properties.

The remaining area that has to be cleared, belonging to the Agricultural Engineering High School and the Sai Gon Forestry Import-Export Company, had been rented out to many other companies. While they had committed to move out by the end of June, they are yet to do so.

The existing oncology hospital in Binh Thanh District is severely overloaded. The hospital has just 631 beds but the number of inpatients is around 1,800. Thus many patients have to share beds.

The Paediatric Hospital 1 in District 10 has 1,400 beds, but it has been experiencing overcrowding for the last two years.

The hospital admits and treats nearly 1.7 million children each year.

The Paediatric Hospital 2 in District 1, which also has 1,400 beds, is also suffering from overcrowding. The hospital examines nearly 1.4 million children each year, of whom more than one million are admitted for treatment.

Source: VNS