Facilities and equipment are ready for receiving and treating COVID-19 patients at  Bạc Liệu Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital. VNA/VNS Photo

BẠC LIÊU —  The first private hospital in southern Bạc Liêu Province, Bạc Liêu Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital, has registered to receive and treat COVID-19 patients. It is a large-scale hospital with modern equipment, ensuring capacity to treat severe coronavirus patients.

Trần Hoàn Đảo, deputy director of Bạc Liêu Department of Health, said as soon as province leaders called on the private health sector and retired medical staff to contribute to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital contacted and informed them of their capacity.

They proposed a plan to the province's Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control to request participation in the coronavirus patient treatment system.

“This is a welcome move, especially in the context of the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is of great significance that private hospitals participate in the common work and provide human resources to support the frontline. This will help reduce the workload and strengthen the treatment capacity of COVID-19 patients," he said.

Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital and Bạc Liêu General Hospital are classified as medical facilities treating patients on the third floor in the "treatment tower" model of the Ministry of Health, which treats patients in severe and critical condition .

Doctor Phạm Thanh Vũ, director of Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital, said the hospital had built a new treatment area separate from the hospital with modern infrastructure and equipment for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

“This is the responsibility of every doctor and the responsibility to the community,” he said.

Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital currently has 250 beds, including 30 beds for COVID-19 treatment with 118 doctors, 10 doctors in emergency resuscitation and anesthesiology, and 251 nurses. Currently, the hospital is also working to deploy a 20-bed treatment area to treat COVID-19 patients, including eight resuscitation beds.

Vũ said the hospital had an operating room for COVID-19 patients when surgery was needed; delivery room for COVID-19 patients who are pregnant; a separate treatment area for F1 with underlying disease with two hemodialysis machines for chronic kidney failure patients on periodic dialysis and cardiovascular intervention area.

In addition, the hospital has an RT-PCR testing system with testing capacity of 800 samples per day, which has been certified by the Pasteur Institute in HCM City.

Currently, there are 10 employees performing SAR-CoV-2 testing, of which four have been trained in testing at Pasteur HCM City.

Thanh Vũ Medic Hospital has also been equipped with a liquid oxygenation storage tank system, including two tanks with a capacity of 12 cubic metres and 8 cubic metres respectively. The system can provide 30 million litres of oxygen to COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The hospital also has a central compressed air system.

“We have called for volunteers from all medical staff here. Fortunately, when talking about this, many doctors and nurses of the hospital have volunteered to participate in pandemic prevention and control, despite knowing the difficulties and challenges. Such spirit shows the desire to soon control the pandemic so that people's lives in Bạc Liêu Province will soon return to normal,” Vũ said. — VNS