HCM City Oncology Hospital’s doctors are checking one machine for radiotherapy in its new facility in District 9. VNS Photo Gia Lộc

HCM CITY— The HCM City Oncology Hospital will start admitting patients at its new 1,000-bed facility in District 9 from Friday, which will help reduce the overcrowding at its existing one in Bình Thạnh District.

By March 2021 its departments of disease examination and chemotherapy will start working at full capacity.

By September next year it will be fully functional.

Speaking to the media, Dr Diệp Bảo Tuấn, the hospital’s deputy director, said: “The new facility … is equipped with modern machines to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancers.”

The equipment include a PET- CT scanner and accelerators for radiotherapy and others.   

In the beginning, the new facility will only admit outpatients, and people needing hospitalisation will be sent to the existing facility in Bình Thạnh District by ambulances the hospital will provide together with a company it has tied up with.

Later the Bình Thạnh facility will be developed as a centre for screening and outpatient treatment.

The new facility has recruited 500 doctors, nurses and other personnel.  

Its construction started in 2016 but completion has been delayed until now. — VNS