Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital is overloaded, lacking treatment space
Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital is a grade I hospital, under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, and for many years has been overloaded at all 4 facilities.
Recorded at facility 3 on Phan Dang Luu street, Cau Kieu ward, Ho Chi Minh City, a place specializing in outpatient psychiatric examination and treatment for children, on average, about 200 children are received each day, of which 30% are examined with health insurance. Due to limited area and facilities, children and their families have to queue in cramped spaces.
According to BS.CKII Nguyen Dang Khoa - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital, facilities 1 and 3 are having to meet many activities from medical examination, emergency care, inpatient and outpatient treatment to psychological counseling, while the area is limited. The hospital is also under pressure to care for seriously ill patients, who are at risk of being agitated, causing harm to themselves or others, and patients who need long-term treatment.
The limited usable area leads to a lack of space to arrange functional areas, making it difficult to expand the scale of treatment, especially for mental patients who need a safe, airy environment, with suitable living and rehabilitation spaces" - BS.CKII Nguyen Dang Khoa shared.
Faced with this situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Mental Hospital proposed that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Department of Health consider arranging a new facility with a larger area, in order to reduce overload, expand the scale of medical examination and treatment and improve patient care conditions.
Ho Chi Minh City urgently relocates mental treatment facilities
Chairing and organizing a field survey, Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Loc - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City - said that the facilities at some mental treatment facilities are still cramped and stuffy, causing difficulties for both patients and medical staff.
According to Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Loc, mental patients are a vulnerable group, if they have to be treated in a cramped, unventilated space, care and treatment will face many obstacles.
Taking patients as the center to serve" is a principle that needs to be put first. According to him, arranging a facility with a suitable area not only helps patients enjoy better care conditions but also creates a favorable working environment for medical staff.
In the immediate future, Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Loc proposed that the Department of Health coordinate with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance to review and select an establishment under state management of the health sector with available facilities to renovate and adjust functions, and soon arrange to serve mental patients. The selection should prioritize establishments with sufficiently large areas, limiting the need to invest in new construction, thereby being able to deploy quickly.
According to the orientation given, Ho Chi Minh City will have two areas for caring for and treating mental patients. Among them, the mental hospital has an area of about 5ha, with a scale of 1,000 beds; the mental patient nursing center has an area of about 3.3ha, with a scale of 1,000 beds. These projects are expected to start construction in the second quarter of 2027 and be put into operation from 2029.
However, while waiting for projects to be completed, the city requires immediate solutions to improve the conditions for caring for mental patients. Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Loc requested the Department of Health to urgently direct the repair and renovation of appropriate facilities to soon relocate some treatment areas, prioritizing facilities for children with psychological and mental health problems.
According to Mr. Nguyen Phuoc Loc, rehabilitation needs the participation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and socio-political organizations to mobilize social resources to support patients in difficult circumstances.
Building a play space for children while waiting for examination or psychological counseling, it is necessary to dedicate the 1st floor as a examination area, the upper floors are arranged with psychological counseling areas and expand daytime care activities.
He also requested that mental therapy facilities must put patient safety first. The design of hospital beds, materials used and treatment spaces need to be calculated to suit the specific characteristics of mental patients, both friendly and ensuring safety.
He proposed that the facility currently used in the area in front of the Tropical Diseases Hospital must be returned to the hospital to contribute to reducing overload.
