Major pediatric hospitals in HCM City may have to enlist the support of district hospitals and send patients to other provinces because they cannot cope with the sharp rise in cases during the flu season.

Officials at Pediatric Hospital 1 and Pediatric Hospital 2 said doctors were handling 15,000 children a day, of which 4,000 needed to be hospitalised each day, but each hospital only has 1,400 beds and patients are being treated in hallways.

Ha Manh Tuan, the director of Pediatric Hospital 2, said in the first nine months, the number of outpatients and inpatients increased by 12 percent and 5 percent respectively. He forecast that the number of patients would continue to stay high through to the end of November.

Deputy head of HCM City Health Department
Tang Chi Thuong (middle)

Tang Chi Thuong, the deputy head of HCM City Health Department, said while people flocked to hospitals in HCM City, hospitals in nearby provinces like Long An and or Tien Giang general hospitals were seeing 700 patients a day and had capacity to take some of the pressure of major hospitals.

In a long-term plan, major hospitals will continue transferring technology and rotating doctors with other hospitals.

Thuong said a new pediatric hospital with 1,000 beds is being built in HCM City and will completed in 2016.