From
Wire Reports
Dr.
Diep Bao Tuan says he is often reminded of a crowded market place when he sees
the scores of patients at Viet Nam’s premier cancer treatment facility.
Speaking
about the massive load on the Sai Gon Oncology Hospital, Tuan, who has been
working at the hospital for more than 20 years, says: “The priority is to ease
the overload for the patients.”
Cramped
in a makeshift room in a corridor, Tuan has prepared drafts for a project to
ease the situation.
A
number of measures have indeed been taken, including opening the hospital
earlier in the morning, working during the noon break and weekends, and
cooperating with provincial and district hospitals.
But
all this has helped to merely slowdown the worsening of the situation. It is
common for two patients to share a bed. Often they only stay in the bed when
doctors come for examination, with one otherwise lying on a mat on the floor
somewhere next to the bed or along the corridor or simply sitting on the
stairs.
The
hospital’s 213 doctors are now treating 1,807 inpatients and 9,510 outpatients.
More than 1,600 new patients come to the hospital for examination every day.
Le
Hoang Minh, the hospital’s director, says he has asked hospitals in District 9
for all their empty rooms and beds to ease the overloading by 10 to 15 percent.
Tuoi
Tre newspaper spent a day in examination room No. 3 with three doctors and a
nurse to witness their daily work.
The
nurse, who opened the room at 6 a.m. and began to check the files of
outpatients coming for examination, said it was not the most crowded day of the
week.
In
a small room are four tables for the doctors and nurse and a dozen plastic
chairs for waiting patients.
The
specialized room for checking thyroid problems has no modern equipment and
doctors examine the patients with their hands. Each of them has a computer to
record data and print out prescriptions.
The
nurse picks a file from a tall stack by the door and summons the patient to
record the blood pressure before handing over the file to the doctors.
Outside,
more than 1,000 patients and their relatives jostle for places. Some impatient
ones begin to argue, others complain about having to wait too long, some take a
nap on a bench.
A
speaker regularly issues warnings about pickpockets even as sweating patients
wait with a mixture of anxiety, sadness and distress.
In
the room, the three doctors are working non-stop.
Vo
Tuan, one of them, examines a patient’s neck to see if there is a tumor. He
asks just basic questions like where it hurts and for how long before deciding
if the patient needs to be admitted or given medication.
While
waiting for the printer to print a prescription, he quickly takes another file
and begins examining the next patient. Each patient sees the doctor for just
around a minute and there is no time for them to ask any questions.
The
room closes at 11:50 after the doctors examine 330 patients. It opens again at
1 p.m. and remains open until late afternoon.
The
situation is the same at the Sai Gon Traumatology and Orthopedics Hospital where
patients — and their relatives — take up every vantage point as they wait to
be examined.
Everyone
works from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. without a break, examining up to 300 patients.
According
to a report from the hospital, a patient has to wait between one and eight
weeks for surgery and sometimes up to a year in complicated cases.
“We
have 140 doctors and 14 surgery rooms,” the hospital director Tran Thanh My
says. “Many patients have to wait but we do not know what else to do.”
The
director’s room is near the stairs and always noisy, with scores of patients
outside. Many impatient patients knock on the door to ask him about their
situation and relevant procedures, and My unfailingly replies to them.
“I
have been here for 30 years and got used to it.”
