Extensions of two hospitals in northern Vietnam have drawn the ire of Vietnam’s General Secretary To Lam on account of the fact they are not operational 10 years after construction began, Dan Tri is reporting. These two hospitals have been highlighted as key examples of wasted public money the General Secretary has singled out as a key cause for his tenure.
Construction work on the new branches of Bach Mai Hospital and Viet Duc Hospital kicked-off in 2014 with the examination areas at both hospitals inaugurated in 2018. Since then, however, only one facility was used for a year and the other has not accepted patients at all.
These delays look to stem from several problems.
Local news outlet Thanh Nien has found that there were problems making payments to contractors that stemmed from how the contracts were put together. It references the Ministry of Health.
Conversely, Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre news outlet, referencing an unnamed ‘representative of the project management board’, found that there was a lack of experience among the implementation team and that the two hospitals made changes to the plans while construction was underway.
Both projects were estimated to cost VND 4.5 trillion or US$177.7 million each.