Priority given to building new 'worst mental hospital in the country'

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health and the Thu Duc City People's Committee prioritize the construction of a new Mental Hospital - considered the worst of all mental hospitals in the country.

This content was agreed upon in the meeting on orientation for the development of Thu Duc City to become the third specialized medical cluster of Ho Chi Minh City, on October 12. The second specialized medical cluster that is continuing to be built is the Tan Kien medical cluster (Binh Chanh), the first specialized medical cluster is the existing central medical cluster.

Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital has only 300 beds but is distributed in 3 locations with seriously degraded facilities, greatly affecting the treatment and medical examination of people. Of which, the main facility is in District 5 with 50 inpatient beds in a small area (1,700 m2). The second facility in Le Minh Xuan commune, Binh Chanh, with 250 beds, is only designed for inpatient treatment. The third facility is the Children's Examination Department - Day Hospital, in Phu Nhuan district, with the function of examining and treating outpatient mental illnesses for children.

According to the development orientation of the mental health care system, the national average standard is 12 beds/100,000 people. Ho Chi Minh City with more than 10 million people needs at least 1,200 beds.

A corner of Thu Duc City. Photo: Quynh Tran — A corner of Thu Duc City. Photo: *Quynh Tran*

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Tang Chi Thuong said that the health sector has developed a plan to care for people's mental health from now until 2025 and the following years. The plan includes a series of activities from prevention, early detection screening to improving the quality of care for people with mental illness.

When the new Mental Hospital is built, the Ho Chi Minh City Mental Health Care Center will be relocated. The land for construction is prioritized by the Thu Duc City People's Committee for planning and allocation of vacant land, and can be invested in immediately.

Thu Duc City has allocated 120 hectares of land to build a specialized medical cluster , prioritizing existing public medical facilities that are overloaded and degraded, including Le Van Thinh Hospital, Facility 2 (0.9 hectares), Le Van Viet Hospital, Facility 2 (1.5 hectares), and the newly built Thu Duc City Hospital (5.8 hectares), proposed using the budget and stimulus loans.

A vacant 0.8-hectare land plot is being used to build a new Eye Hospital 2 using stimulus loans. A high-tech disease screening center is expected to be built on an area of 2.9 hectares by calling for private capital. The PPP method is also proposed to build a new specialized stroke hospital - this type of specialized hospital is not currently available in Ho Chi Minh City. The 0.8-hectare land plot was planned for a hospital and hotel but has not been implemented, it is expected to build a 115 Emergency Center.

Besides the Faculty of Medicine - Ho Chi Minh City National University, Thu Duc will prioritize land to develop more high-quality medical human resource training facilities, institute - school models, nursing schools...

Le Phuong

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