Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city of Vietnam, will set up 13 new satellite hospitals in several southern provinces and cities in a move to ease the severe overload at the city’s hospitals. This is part of a national plan to build satellite hospitals in 2013-2020 with an aim to reduce the overload and better healthcare services for local people amid the rising demand. Accordingly, the 13 new hospitals, run by the six hospitals of Gia Dinh People’s Hospital, Tu Du Hospital, Trauma and Orthopedic Hospital, Pediatrics Hospital No.1&2 and Oncology Hospital, will be built in Can Tho City, Lam Dong, Tien Giang, Ca Mau, Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa provinces. HCM City, similar to other big cities in Vietnam, is suffering from a serious overload with 2-3 patients sharing one bed. Thus, local authorities have planned to build more public hospitals in suburban and neighboring areas with total new sickbeds of 9,000 by 2025. Currently, the southern economic hub has 101 public and private hospitals with 31,088 sickbeds in total. (baodientu.chinhphu.vn July 22)
