Seen and heard outside the new hospital fence

(Baonghean) - Nghe An General Hospital with 700 beds officially came into operation in early October 2014, marking a new development step of the province's health sector. Usually, a large-scale hospital of regional scale not only aims to meet the increasing demand for medical examination and treatment of the people, but also needs to satisfy the accompanying services both inside and outside the hospital such as: on-demand clinics, pharmacies, food, accommodation, shopping, and transportation services in the most convenient way...

In front of Nghe An General Friendship Hospital.

In reality, "where there is demand, there is supply"!

After 10 years of construction, the Nghe An General Friendship Hospital Construction Project Phase 1 has a total area of ​​9.9 hectares, of which the usable floor area is more than 57 thousand square meters, 5 times larger than the old hospital; with a scale of 700 beds, a system of modern facilities and equipment, the hospital meets the needs of medical examination and treatment for people in Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa provinces and Laos, contributing significantly to reducing the load on central hospitals.

For the people living in the area where the hospital is located (Nghi Phu commune, Vinh city), they hope to have new job opportunities. The hospital has only been in operation for more than 2 months, but in front of the hospital gate, there are always dozens of taxis and motorbike taxis. Mr. Vo Huu Nghi, hamlet 14, Nghi Phu commune, used to work as a hired truck driver, which was hard work, so he quit his job a few years ago. His family only has 2.5 sao of rice fields, so there is little work. Since the hospital first started operating, he has had a new job as a motorbike taxi driver to earn extra income. Mr. Nghi said: "There are many customers here who need to travel, so I can make 5-6 trips a day, earning about 100,000 VND".

On Ho Tong Thoc Street, located on the right side, near the hospital entrance, many local people spill out onto the sidewalk to do business. The road is only about 20m from Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street, there are about a dozen shops selling all kinds of goods: rice, pho, drinks, fruits and even a pharmacy... Since the hospital moved in, the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Hamlet 14, Nghi Phu Commune, whose house is right next to Ho Tong Thoc Street, has had a good source of income from renting out the shop. She said: “My family has just built 3 more kiosks for people in the commune to rent out to open rice and pho shops, mainly serving customers coming to the hospital. The rent for each kiosk is 10 million VND/month. In addition, my family also has two kiosks for my children to sell medicine and rice and pho. I have been selling groceries here for quite a long time, but since the hospital started operating, the number of customers has doubled compared to before, thanks to that, my income has improved a lot”.

In addition, the demand for food and shopping of patients and their families is currently very large. The hospital has a nutrition department providing food services, a number of stalls selling essential goods to serve both staff, patients and their families in need, but in reality, every day the hospital receives and treats from 1,200 to 1,300 patients; accompanied by their families... while the hospital's nutrition department with only 1,350m2 (designed according to the scale of a 700-bed hospital) is difficult to meet all the demand. The hospital pharmacy located in area A is still not completed, so it is inevitable that people go outside the hospital to shop. Mr. Lo Van Truong in Thach Ngan commune (Con Cuong) was taken to the hospital by his son. While waiting for his turn, the stalls along the hospital fence are where he and his son rest and eat. Mr. Truong said that if you come from far away, you should choose a restaurant near the hospital for convenience and the price is affordable.

Many concerns

Studying the residents around the hospital, in Hamlet 14, Nghi Phu Commune, where Ho Tong Thoc Street runs through, most of the people are self-employed. Mr. Tran Trung Trinh - Head of Hamlet 14 said that the hamlet has 131 households, with 480 people. Of these, only 45 people are beneficiaries of pensions and social policies, 20 people are civil servants; the rest are workers (with unstable jobs) and self-employed. Previously, local people mainly engaged in agricultural production and rice cultivation. But up to now, the hamlet has had 29,000 m2 of land recovered to serve the construction of the hospital, the Military Region 4 Vocational School, etc., so local workers have switched to other jobs such as factory workers, construction workers, bricklayers, etc. and mainly run small-scale markets.

Ho Tong Thoc Street, right next to the fence of the Provincial General Hospital. Photo: Dinh Nguyet

The most "stuck" problem now is that when the hospital's area A is completed and put into operation, only Ho Tong Thoc street (located on the right side) will be able to do business. This street is included in the planning of the Nghe An General Hospital Construction Project Phase 2 (2014 - 2016), but now people are setting up shops and stalls in the style of "there is demand, there is supply". There are 2 households (Mr. Nguyen Van Dinh and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Toan's family) along Ho Tong Thoc street who have built kiosks for business or for rent to gain immediate profits, after signing a commitment with the Commune People's Committee to voluntarily dismantle them when the State reclaims the land. Realizing the favorable trading environment, people in neighboring hamlets still try to squeeze in on both sides of Ho Tong Thoc Street, from Xo Viet Nghe - Tinh Street extending onto the sidewalk next to the hospital, with carts selling all kinds of groceries, clothes, fruits... umbrellas, tables and chairs spread all over the sidewalk.

To rectify the above situation, Vinh City People's Committee issued Decision No. 5102 assigning Nghi Phu Commune People's Committee to preside over and coordinate with the City Urban Inspectorate to implement Directive 05/CT-TH of the Vinh City Party Committee Standing Committee and Plan 38/KH-UBND of the City People's Committee. Vinh resolutely clears up gathering places along the sidewalks, restores urban order, traffic safety and environmental sanitation in front of the hospital gate, the red light intersection area and both sides of the Ho Tong Thoc street corridor in Hamlet 14, Nghi Phu Commune. Implementing the decisions of the City People's Committee, Nghi Phu Commune People's Committee has coordinated with the Urban Inspectorate to regularly launch operations every morning (from 6-7am and in the afternoon from 5-6pm) to clear up the trading of mobile stalls and food stalls along the sidewalks in front of the hospital gate, the red light intersection of Ho Tong Thoc street.

Ensuring the environmental landscape and restoring traffic safety and urban order in the area of ​​the Provincial General Hospital is an immediate issue. The more important goal is to clear the area of ​​Hamlet 14, Nghi Phu Commune to continue to build the second phase of the hospital. When the hospital moves in, the land in this area is considered "an inch of land, an inch of gold" for the people, generating profits every day, so the site clearance work is facing many difficulties. According to Mr. Ho Van Vinh - Head of the Provincial General Hospital Project Management Board, the province's plan is to hand over the cleared site to the investor, the Construction Engineering and Construction Materials Joint Stock Company (Cotex Saigon), by December 31, 2014 to carry out the second phase of the project to build area B of the hospital. However, up to this point, no households have agreed to relocate. Since the hospital started operating, on the land that already had its own red book, households have set up stalls and shops to do business, making it very difficult to clear the land. The hospital has issued Document No. 1187/BC/BV “Reporting construction violations in the planning area and loss of security and order in the project area”. And, recent negotiation meetings with the people have not yet yielded results…

According to the master plan, Zone B of the Provincial General Hospital will include the following items: Hospital service area with 600 beds (mainly for on-demand treatment), car garage and patient's family parking lot. When the hospital project completes all phases, it will be extremely important in improving the quality of medical examination and treatment for people in the province. However, the issue of people's livelihood needs, and more broadly, the issue of exploiting the advantageous influence to develop satellite services of a regional hospital such as the Provincial General Hospital, also needs to be taken into account. On the other hand, the locality has recovered agricultural land from people in hamlets 10, 13, 14, and is preparing to recover residential land to continue building the second phase of the hospital; so it is understandable that people are looking forward to business development opportunities based on the advantages of the hospital. However, based on the overall planning of the hospital, with a rather special location: In front is Xo Viet Nghe Tinh street, the North and West are all planned roads; while on the other side of the street there are already agencies and enterprises; therefore, after the hospital project is completed, it will also be very "confusing" for locations and places for people to do business services.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Toan - Vice Chairman of Nghi Phu Commune People's Committee said: Currently, there is no business location for people in the area around the hospital, the commune is also very concerned. In the near future, on the East side of Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street (opposite the hospital gate), there will be the Gold Viet Project. Hopefully, after this project is completed, people will have a place to do business.

Thus, it can be seen that the advantage of exploiting the development of service business and creating jobs for people living around the new hospital area is still not considered for the time being. To solve this problem, it is necessary to have the city's participation in allocating land funds and locations near the hospital's master plan for people to rent as places to concentrate their business, and collect taxes, in order to solve the problem of spontaneous business, disorder and security, and ensure the current environmental landscape; at the same time, it also creates revenue for the State.

Dinh Nguyet - Song Hoang