Minister urges cancer hospital to build new branch
HCM CITY (VNS)— Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has asked the HCM City Department of Health and the HCM City Oncology Hospital to speed up construction of a new branch and open more satellite departments in order to cut the long-waiting lines of cancer patients.
The new 1,000-bed branch of the hospital in District 9 would be a crucial step in reducing the severe overload at the HCM City Oncology Hospital where cancer patients from southern region and several central provinces seek treatment, Tien said at a two-day tour of hospitals in the city that ended yesterday.
She asked leaders of the hospital to increase the number of health check-up tables to 25 from nine and recruit enough doctors to improve the quality of health check-ups and treatment at the hospital.
The 1,000sq.m hospital with 200 doctors received an average of 1,500 patients a day, according to Le Hoang Minh, director of the hospital.
The hospital has taken various measures to reduce the severe overload because the number of patients has been increasing by five to seven per cent every year, Minh said.
Last year, 372,333 patients, including more than 268 new ones, received health check-ups and treatment at the hospital.
Patients from other localities accounted for 75 per cent of the total in 2012, an increase from 60-70 per cent in 2011.
Early this month, the hospital worked with the 175 Military Hospital to set up a unit for cancer treatment, which provides radiation therapy for around 100 patients a day, Minh said.
The unit would be equipped with necessary equipment to provide other treatment including surgery and chemotherapy, he said.
A satellite department with 150 beds would be opened at the District 2 Hospital in the second quarter of the year.
The Health Minister also recommended measures to improve procedures in providing health check-ups and treatment at Trung Vuong Emergency Hospital in the city, including application of information technology, e-prescriptions and rearranging of departments to increase operational effectiveness. — VNS