The
Ho Chi Minh City Health Department has said that it is looking for designers to
draw up plans for four major hospital renovations across the expanding
metropolis.
Huynh Van Biet, vice director of HCMC Department of Health, said that the
designers were being recruited even though project planners were still facing
land clearance problems. He said it was best to speed up the project.
"[The project] is very important to the city," he said.
The
city has been slow to come up with funds with which to compensate local
residents displaced or affected by the project, which envisions transforming
four old hospitals in the outlying districts of Binh Chanh, Thu Duc, Cu Chi and
7 into first-rate modern facilities.
Under the plan approved by municipal authorities in 2007, the hospitals will
serve local people in the four districts and those from other provinces coming
to the city to seek advanced treatment.
This will help lessen traffic jams in the city's central districts of 5, 10 and
11, where most of hospitals are located, according to project planners.