The hospital in District 5 was built in 1968 on an area of more than 5,000 square meters.
It was originally designed to have just 100 beds but this has climbed to 600 because of demand. The beds are placed in halls and in rooms not originally designated for patients.
Every day, the hospital receives 1,500-2,000 people coming in for examination and admits 600-700 patients. With 900 staff and medical students working as interns, and patients' relatives, there are around 5,000 people at the hospital each day.
The hospital has no separate lane for patients coming for regular health examinations and emergency cases coming in ambulances.
The main path to the reception area does not have enough space to arrange benches, and patients and their families have to stand or sit on the steps.
Nurses gather in a 5 sq.m room to clean up medical equipment. Such a small space is used to store medical equipment and clothes for hospitalized patients.
A corridor more than one meter wide is used to store furniture and medical equipment.
The hospital is doing its best to make the most of its space to serve patients. It has built more surgery rooms, X-ray rooms, and added more tables in the examination room to receive more patients as it attempts to tackle the overload.
The Spine Department A wears the most downgrade look in the hospital. The walls are dull, with the paint peeled off in large patches.
A balcony "modified" to create more space.
In 2010, the government approved in principle a project to build a new orthopedic campus in Binh Chanh District under the build-transfer format. However, the project is still stuck at the step of "preparing investment procedures."
Tang Chi Thuong, director of the HCMC Department of Health, said he had proposed to the city administration that it stops implementing the project in the BT form and instead use the city budget, while moving the location to a larger place to ensure it can host at least 500 beds.
