In March 2025, Lao Dong newspaper started publishing a series of articles "Prolonged Consequences of the billion-dollar abandoned Oncology Hospital Project", directly reflecting the inadequacies at the Can Tho City Oncology Hospital Construction Investment Project (scale of 500 beds). After a long period of efforts to remove bottlenecks in mechanisms and capital, the project has now been restarted.
Along with that is the fact that facility 1 is invested with a modern accelerator radiation therapy machine, facility 3 has just been inaugurated, clearly demonstrating the political determination of Can Tho City, creating motivation for the city to bring the project to completion by the end of November 2026, in accordance with the direction of the Prime Minister.
Exterior paint
Under the harsh sun of March, we returned to the construction site of the Can Tho City Oncology Hospital construction investment project (scale of 500 beds). Different from the wild and quiet appearance of a year ago, the atmosphere here has changed greatly, with brighter colors.
Dozens of workers have sprayed high-intensity water to remove long-term moss, then proceeded to paint the outer surface.
According to observations, removing the "scars of time" left behind is quite laborious.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Le The Vinh - Project Management Board (under Bach Dang Construction Corporation) said that the investor and the contractor consortium finalized contract appendix No. 9, basically completed, and started deploying the next part.
In the near future, after the contract appendices and legal procedures are completed, the construction unit can deploy them massively. At this time, the parties need to have close and close contact, go into completion and not overlap with each other" - Mr. Vinh said.
On the side of Bach Dang Contractor, the rough part has been basically completed, and is currently continuing to clean and carry out covering and painting the outer surface. As of March 31, the construction unit is constructing the water supply and drainage road from the roof of building C to the ground and cutting the wall to bury pipes.
Waiting for supplies to speed up progress
According to research, by mid-April 2026, the project had signed Appendix No. 10 (addendum on changes to materials, construction materials and core contents of the project). However, it is still necessary to continue waiting for materials to arrive. Meanwhile, the progress of the construction unit must completely depend on the supply of materials.
Previously, the related parties informed Mr. Truong Canh Tuyen, Chairman of Can Tho City at the construction site survey on March 12, 2026. Mr. Tuyen requested the investor (Department of Health) to have solutions and be resolute with the parties so as not to affect the project progress.
Chairman of Can Tho City People's Committee Truong Canh Tuyen requested Director of Can Tho Department of Health Hoang Quoc Cuong, in addition to Appendix No. 10 mentioned above, "any appendix that needs to be signed must be done in one go to finish".
Most recently, when exchanging with Lao Dong Newspaper, an official at the construction site worried that if there are materials, they will still deploy powder bait and anti-alkaline primer for both inside and outside, and the coating can be pushed back to perform other tasks related to wall chiseling and cutting before painting to ensure quality and aesthetics.
Invest in modern equipment
At the end of March 2026, in the bustling atmosphere of the handover ceremony of the accelerated radiation therapy system at facility 1, patient Huynh Hoang Hai (Vinh Long province) expressed: "Hearing the news of having a radiation therapy machine is very happy, happy for me and many other patients. So now I just hope the new hospital will put it into use so that people will be less worried" - .
Representatives of the Can Tho City Department of Health - said that the accelerated radiation therapy system being handed over will contribute to improving the quality of treatment, approaching advanced standards; reducing the burden on central-level hospitals; more importantly, shortening the distance to access high-quality medical services between regions, ensuring fairness in people's health care.
After the handover ceremony, the accelerated radiation therapy system will be put into pilot operation by Can Tho City Oncology Hospital, in order to complete the technical inspection, radiation dose standardization, operation process evaluation and complete human resource training.
As Lao Dong newspaper reported, on November 14, 2025, at the 6th session (specialized session), the Can Tho City People's Council passed a resolution on adjusting the investment policy of the project.
Accordingly, adjusting the capital structure of the project includes: ODA loans from the Hungarian Government (more than 272 billion VND), central budget capital (1.334 billion VND), counterpart capital from local budget sources (more than 465 billion VND). At the same time, adjusting to increase the total investment (due to exchange rate differences) by about 344 billion VND. The total investment after adjustment is expected to be 2,071 billion VND.
