On March 16 Department of Health organised a drill for admitting COVID-19 patients at the second specialised hospital in HCM City for the pandemic, Cần Giờ Health Centre. Source https://www.medinet.hochiminhcity.gov.vn

HCM CITY— Medical staff at many hospitals around the country have been creative in fabricating automatic devices as they take care of an increasing number of COVID-19 patients.

Employees of Thống Nhất Hospital in HCM City’s Tân Bình District make automatic hand sanitiser dispensers for their patients.

They took the design from Vị Thanh Health Centre in the Mekong Delta province of Hậu Giang, which the hospital’s staff and managers visited recently, and made some modifications to it.

Huế Central Hospital in the central province of Thừa Thiên- Huế has fabricated an automatic vehicle to carry food and medicines to COVID-19 patients.

It was made by the hospital’s director, Phạm Như Hiệp, and Huỳnh Phúc Minh, head of the room service management division.

They made it by modifying a remotely operated electric car for kids and putting a small container in it.

It means the staff do not need to take food and medicines to COVID-19 patients, which provides the double benefit of protecting them and easing their workload.

As of March 14 four patients with COVID-19 were being treated at the hospital.

Staff at HCM City’s District 11 Hospital have borrowed sewing machines and bought materials such as anti-bacterial and waterproof cloth and thread to sew masks because of a shortage of medical masks in the market.

In four weeks they have sewn more than 8,000 masks, and they are stored in the warehouse, according to the hospital.

In the last one month health workers at Từ Dũ Hospital in HCM City have been working during their noon break to make masks. They will soon start making activated carbon masks for staff who handle test samples.

One more hospital for COVID-19 treatment has been opened in the city, the Cần Giờ Health Centre.

The first was a field hospital in Củ Chi District.

On March 16 the department organised a COVID-19 patient admission drill at the new hospital. Ten isolated negative-pressure rooms to prevent cross-contamination have been set up.

These specialised hospitals will help reduce the load on the Tropical Diseases and prevent cross-contamination, according to the city Department of Health.

Speaking at a meeting between the city steering board for COVID-19 prevention and control held March 16, chairman of the People’s Committee, Nguyễn Thành Phong, said the Department of Health should teach people in quarantine how to prevent cross-contamination.   

The city has 25,000 beds in quarantine and plans to use one more military facility to isolate suspected victims from the south-eastern region and also several hotels.

So far at least five hotels had agreed, Phong said. VNS