Nat’l Pediatric Hospital Adds Specialized Care

The National Pediatric Hospital on Russian Boulevard will be ad­d­ing a new wing for specialized care to its existing facility. 

The three-story building will house 250 beds for children af­flicted with cancer, lung, heart and liver diseases, which the hospital has not been equipped to treat up to now, said hospital di­rector Chhour Y Meng.

Funding is provided by the South Korea’s International Co­operation Agency that has donated $2.4 million for the project, he said.

The agency will also bring in trainers to familiarize the hospital’s doctors with the state-of-the-art equipment in the new unit.

Construction is due to start early next month and to take about a year.

This specialized-care wing may help ease the hospital’s financial burden, since it will be possible to treat both poor children and the children of families with the means to take them abroad for specialized care, Chhour Y Meng said.

Since those families may ask for private rooms for which the free hospital can charge, this will make revenues for the hospital where half of the patients are poor children, he said.

In the meantime, petroleum firm Sokimex expects to start construction on a $30-million, private hospital early next year, said company president Sok Kong.

The location has been changed because the Norodom Boulevard lot, where the Denmark Hotel used to be and the previously se­lected site for the hospital, has proven too small, he said.

The hospital will now be built on a 7-hectare lot in Meanchey dis­trict, inside a 200-hectare stretch of land belonging to Sokimex, Sok Kong said.

The project will be a joint venture between Sokimex and Viet­nam, with Vietnam assuming 70 per­cent and the company 30 percent of the costs, he said.

The hospital will require a li­cense from the Phnom Penh Mu­nicipality in order to operate, but has still to apply for it, said Veng Thai, the municipality’s health director.

 

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