siem reap town – Government officials are negotiating the sale of land occupied by the state-owned Siem Reap Provincial Hospital to a private property development firm, a Belgian Technical Cooperation official based inside the hospital said Wednesday.
The 1.4-hectare site houses the Chronic Disease Clinic, the Infectious Disease Department, the Tuberculosis Department, Emergency Room and Reception, a training center built by the UN, an administrative building, and a Handicap International rehabilitation center, said Dr Georges Dallemagne, co-director of BTC’s provision of basic health services in Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey province.
“The Ministry of Health said the deal is on the table, but no decision has been made by the Council of Ministers,” Dallemagne said at the hospital on Wednesday, adding that he fears the hospital’s departments will be knocked down to make way for apartments.
The hospital land is probably worth about $7 million, he said, adding: “I have some doubt the income [from the sale] will go back to the Ministry of Health.”
“Belgium will ask for a clarification and will ask the Prime Minister what is happening,” Dallemagne said. “It’s public land and it can’t be sold. That’s the law.”
The Chronic Disease Clinic has registered about 4,155 patients since 2002, about 1,906 of whom have been HIV/AIDS patients, said Sophie Duterme, Siem Reap project coordinator of Medicines Sans Frontiers Belgium. “The main concern is for the patients. If this clinic isn’t here, they won’t get treatment and…will die,” she said.
MSF Belgium has invested $300,000 in construction at the hospital, she added.
Hospital staff said the government is planning to relocate the buildings to a site about 15 km outside the busy tourist town’s center.
Such a move would be too far for patients and staff to travel, and some emergency patients would likely die in the ambulance on the way there, hospital staff warned.
On Tuesday, the director of Canadia Bank’s Siem Reap branch visited the hospital with three representatives from a construction firm, and surveyed parts of the hospital not included in the 1.4 hectares, Lek Ramonith Laurent, a BTC program officer said.
That visit prompted fears that the government may plan to sell the whole hospital.
Ear Khy Meng, Canadia Bank Siem Reap Branch assistant manager, said people visited the hospital to take measurements but denied they were bank officials.
Siem Reap Governor Sim Son denied the hospital was being sold. But Dr Dy Bun Chhem, Provincial Health Department director, said: “I heard about a swap but officially I don’t know.”
Seang Nam, a CPP parliamentarian and managing director of City Angkor Hotel, said he had no information on the hospital’s future but added that the Siem Reap District Office has been swapped with a private firm and has since relocated to outside the center. “Right now [the office] is occupied by a private company,” he said.
Eam Pun, the hospital’s deputy director, said the hospital is well equipped and should not be moved outside the city.
“If the [Ministry of Health] and the Council of Ministers think a hospital in town is polluting the environment, it’s up to them,” he said. “The hospital is [for] the people and needs to be close to [them].”