The Health Department in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi on June 12 started upgrading Thanh Nhan general hospital with a total investment of VND458 billion ($21.81 million), state media reported. Under the project scheduled for completion in 2015, a nine-storey building will be built for inpatient treatment. Currently, the 11-storey building of the hospital has always been overcrowded, failing to meet the rising demand from local residents. The department has recently upgraded a series of healthcare facility, namely the VND500 billion Ba Vi General Hospital and a VND325 billion obstetrics hospital, as part of its efforts to reduce the overload at hospitals in the inner districts. Hanoi now has 32 medical units run by the Ministry of Health, nine hospitals run by other ministries and 40 general and specialist hospitals run by the city itself. The capital city plans to spend VND1.4 trillion on healthcare projects this year, up 50% from a year earlier. (Tin Tuc – News June 14 p6, Vietnamplus.vn June 13)
