City seeks designers for new hospitals
By Hien Nguyen - The Saigon Times Daily
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| A doctor examines a patient at a local hospital in HCMC. The city's hospitals are grappling with overload, leading the city health authority to speed up work on new hospital projects - Photo: Thu Hien |
HCMC – The HCMC Department of Health said on Monday that they are seeking architects to design new hospitals at the city’s gateways this year.
The project is crucial, as currently inner-city hospitals are overloaded. The plan, which was approved in late 2007, calls for the construction of four hi-tech hospitals in the outlying districts of Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh and Thu Duc. 
Each hospital will have 1,000 beds to ease the burden on existing hospitals and to service patients living nearby too. It is estimated the project will cost VND886 billion.
Huynh Van Biet, deputy director of the health department, told the Daily that land preparation was taking longer than expected though. He said the department was working hard with other districts to rectify the problem.
“We are beginning to call for architects to propose their ideas because we hope site clearance will finish at the end of the year. Construction work can begin early next year,” he said.
He said that the design process would be complex, adding that a sophisticated medical wastewater and garbage collection and treatment system would be integral.
“We give priority to designers who have good ideas for medical waste and garbage treatment. Thus, designers should submit their proposals to the city’s departments of health and construction soon,” he said.
HCMC’s Department of Health recently announced that this year the city would spend VND600 billion upgrading and repairing hospitals to meet local residents’ demands.
The health care sector will upgrade and repair 100 minor projects, 85 of them approved with total capital of VND290 billion.