A private Phnom Penh medical clinic facing multiple complaints, including the death of a man with severe head injuries that went untreated for a week before he was transferred to a public hospital, closed its surgery section Nov 11, said the clinic’s director Dr Taing Vengseng.
But the rest of Meanchey district’s Chantrea Hospital Poly Clinic’s sections, including an ambulance service, remain open. “We don’t have rich patients,” Taing Vengseng said. “[Mostly] moto drivers, factory workers, sex workers and beer girls.” He said he hopes the surgery section will reopen within a week.
Health Minister Nuth Sokhom said the closure was more permanent. “We do this for the good of public health care and safety.”
A ministry official said Chantrea wrongly used private ambulances, intended only for transportation from clinics to hospitals and homes, to pick up injured victims from road accidents. Only Emergency Medical Aid Service vehicles, known as SAMU, are authorized to handle emergency situations on the scene, the official said. The French Red Cross started the program and trained personnel before handing it over to the Ministry of Health, the official added.
Taing Vengseng acknowledged three complaints: two from Sihanouk Hospital and one from Preah Kossomak Hospital, all involving traffic accidents. One case involved a patient with a head injury who was treated and stayed a week at the clinic before going to Sihanouk Hospital for an operation. He said the patient died Aug 1 after three days at the hospital.
Another involved a man whose leg was broken in multiple places. Taing Vengseng said the man refused treatment due to cost and asked to be transported to Preah Kossomak Hospital. Chantrea doctors sewed the man’s leg shut for transportation, he said, which prompted complaints that it exacerbated the injuries and delayed recovery. He said three doctors had already been fired, but he declined to specify who or why.
(additional reporting by Nhem Chea Bunly)
