A new oncology hospital will start operating next month after four years of construction at a cost of almost US$253 million.

The second branch of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital will come on stream on October 2, Diep Bao Tuan, deputy director of the hospital, said on Tuesday.

Initially, the branch will only treat outpatients, Tuan added.

It is expected to receive a daily average of 400 patients, most from other provinces, in October. That number will rise to 600 in November and 1,000 in December.

Inpatients will be tranferred to the main premises of the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital at 3 No Trang Long Street in Binh Thanh District. The transport of such patients will be free for three months from the date of operation of the second branch.

For the time being, patients can choose to have their health examined at both locations of the hospital, with the second branch situated at Road 400, Cay Dau Hamlet, Tan Phu Ward, District 9.

In the long run, the hospital on No Trang Long Street will merely admit patients from the city’s districts, except for District 2, District 9, and Thu Duc District. It will treat patients in daytime and conduct cancer screening.

Inpatients will continue being treated at the first branch of the hospital. From now until January 2021, whenever the second branch becomes capable of treating inpatients, all of them will be moved there.

Currently the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital examines roughly 3,000 patients, about 75-80 percent of the pre-COVID-19 level, on a daily basis, according to statistics.

Construction of the second branch started in 2016. It was scheduled to finish in late 2017.

The date of completion has been pushed back many times till now.

It cost VND5.845 trillion ($252.7 million) to build the new hospital.

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