Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital 2 are under construction for 10 years and still not finished.

Both hospitals started construction at the end of 2014. After 10 years, both Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital, Branch 2 in Phu Ly City ( Ha Nam ), still do not know when they will be put into operation, while the completed construction items have gradually deteriorated.

Viet Duc Hospital 2 has yet to come into operation after 10 years of construction - Photo: NAM TRAN

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said relevant units are actively removing obstacles to continue construction and completion of the project. However, the Ministry of Health has not yet provided exact information on when the two hospitals will be put into operation.

People are eagerly waiting, but...

Bach Mai Hospital (Hanoi) currently receives and treats more than 7,000 outpatients every day, and more than 4,000 inpatient beds are always full. Viet Duc Hospital also receives more than 1,000 medical examinations and treatments every day, and performs more than 70,000 surgeries a year, mainly for severe, complex, and multiple trauma.

Serious and terminally ill patients from all over the country are constantly being brought to the two hospitals, causing them to be constantly overloaded. Some patients have to wait months for an appointment to have surgery.

To reduce the load on end-line hospitals and help people have more opportunities to receive health care sooner, in 2014, Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital, branch 2 in Phu Ly City (Ha Nam) jointly started construction with a scale of 1,000 beds/hospital, expected to be completed in 2017.

Many people in Ha Nam and neighboring provinces hope that when the hospital comes into operation, they will be able to visit a tertiary hospital near their home with modern infrastructure and a team of highly qualified doctors.

However, before the two facilities could celebrate the inauguration of the examination area in October 2018, Bach Mai Hospital stopped receiving patients after a short time of operation.

As for Viet Duc Hospital, the "inauguration" only stopped at the "ribbon cutting" stage, without ever receiving patients. Up to now, the examination area has not been put into operation, while the construction items have gradually deteriorated.

Bach Mai Hospital 2 with 1,000 beds still has no opening date - Photo: NAM TRAN

Still "untangling" the second facility of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital

Previously, speaking with Tuoi Tre , a representative of the project management board said the reason for the two projects being behind schedule was because the unit was implementing the project for the first time, lacked experience, and had not anticipated all the problems that might arise during the implementation process.

"The two hospitals were designed based on the prototype of a foreign hospital. The project also hired a foreign company to design and construct. However, during the construction process, there were many adjustments and changes to the items according to the opinions of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital, such as changing the air conditioning system, hot water system, number of air conditioners and elevators, inpatient areas for doctors and nurses, etc., so the implementation time was exceeded," this person explained.

The project management representative informed that by 2020, the two projects had completed more than 90% of the items, basically completed. There were only a few tasks left such as building the side gate, dividing the rooms according to the design... However, due to the end of the project implementation period, the unit could not carry out the handover procedures.

Calculations cannot be completed according to the assigned schedule, so in 2019 the Ministry of Health requested an extension. The project schedule has been adjusted to December 31, 2020. Most recently, the Ministry of Health continued to approve the adjustment of the project implementation time to December 31, 2024, and at the same time directed the investor to work with contractors to continue construction and complete the project.

In order to soon complete the items and put the two hospitals into operation, in February 2023, the Prime Minister decided to establish a working group to review difficulties and obstacles and promote project implementation.

According to Ms. Dao Hong Lan, the working group has held many meetings to discuss, review and present to the Government the difficulties and problems as well as solutions. The working group has found solutions to the problems and in the coming time, the Ministry of Health will continue to coordinate to gradually resolve the issues in order to put the two hospitals into operation.

Although the project was more than 90% completed in 2020, after four years, the two hospitals have not yet been put into operation, and the problems need to be clarified. Meanwhile, there is a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City that uses the same capital as Bach Mai and Viet Duc 2 but started construction later and by another investor, but has been built modernly and put into use for a long time.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also requested the Ministry of Health to urgently continue implementing the project and put it into operation in 2024. There must be absolutely no negativity, loss, waste, or prolonged delays. And now, with only two months left until the end of the year, there is still no information on whether the hospital can be put into operation.

People are still waiting, still having to travel long distances to get medical treatment. And every day that passes, hundreds of patients are missing out on the health care they should have had for years.

Project with total investment of 4,500 billion VND per hospital

The project to build the second facility of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital in Phu Ly City (Ha Nam Province) has a total investment of 4,500 billion VND for each hospital, and will start construction at the end of 2014.

Bach Mai Hospital's second facility project has a scale of 1,000 inpatient beds and serves about 5,000 medical examinations per day, with a total construction floor area of ​​over ^123,000m2 , built with 1 basement and 6 floors.

Facility 2 of Viet Duc Hospital has a scale of 1,000 inpatient beds and serves about 3,500 medical examinations per day, with a total construction floor area of ​​over ^125,000m2 , built with 1 basement and 9 floors.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/benh-vien-bach-mai-va-viet-duc-co-so-2-xay-mai-10-nam-van-chua-xong-20241031225050854.htm