HCM CITY — The HCM City health department has asked for support from the city to speed up land clearance in several “hotspots” so that it can begin building a number of hospital projects.

At a meeting with the city’s People’s Committee’s supervisory delegation on May 16, the department said that Bình Chánh District should be asked to quickly complete compensation to residents so that construction of the Tân Kiên medical complex could begin.

The complex includes Phạm Ngọc Thạch University’s Medical campus 2, Hematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital, Bình Dân Hospital, and a forensic centre, among others. 

Zone 6A in the South Saigon new urban area, where the new Trauma and Orthosis Hospital will be built, also needs to speed up site clearance and compensation, the department said.

The city’s healthcare development plan calls for 91 new projects in the 2016-20 period. Of that number, the Children’s Hospital and Oncology Hospital, built solely from State funds, opened this year.

The other 88 projects funded from the city’s budget and other resources are under construction.

Meanwhile, the project to build a new headquarters for the health department has been put on hold as it is located in a conservation area.

The city has 115 hospitals with nearly 36,400 beds, and 319 medical stations, according to the health department.

Demand for healthcare in the city has risen rapidly. Each year, the city handles more than 42 million patient visits, or 26.2 per cent of the country’s total.

Many hospitals in the city are overloaded because of the rising number of migrants moving to HCM City and patients from other provinces and cities.

To ensure the quality of healthcare services, the city wants to speed up the building of new medical centres at city gateways to other provinces to reduce pressure on hospitals in or near the city centre.

However, construction of several new facilities has been very slow due to ground clearance issues. — VNS