Calmette Hospital (, ) or L'hôpital Calmette, located on

Monivong Boulevard Monivong Boulevard () is a central boulevard and thoroughfare of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It was named after King Monivong of Cambodia. Most streets in Phnom Penh have numbers rather than names and Monivong Boulevard is also known a ...

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

, is a

public hospital A public hospital, or government hospital, is a hospital which is government owned and is predominantly funded by the government and operates predominantly off the money that is collected from taxpayers to fund healthcare initiatives. In almost al ...

managed by Ministry of Health and funded by the Cambodian and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

governments.Lim, D. (2007). Introduction of a Trauma Assessment Tool in"/>to the Emergency Department of Calmette Hospital. (Doctorate thesis). University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Retrieved from http://wiki.straightjacketstudio.com/images/8/82/CIH2006-7-DLim-TraumaAssessment.pdf It is considered as Cambodia's flagship health care centre.Launey, G.D. (2010, November 23). Scenes of grief amid Cambodia crush carnage. ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

''. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11824082 The hospital was named after

Albert Calmette Léon Charles Albert Calmette ForMemRS (; 12 July 1863 – 29 October 1933) was a French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist, and an important officer of the Pasteur Institute. He co-discovered the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, an attenuat ...

, a renowned French bacteriologist. Calmette Hospital was built in 1950 and received support from several French organizations. In 1998, it was staffed by 30 physicians and surgeons and 50 nurses. There were 250 beds, as well as surgical, medical,

gynecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the Female reproductive system, female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obste ...

and

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a su ...

departments, along with a

radiology Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...

unit (including

ultrasound Ultrasound is sound with frequency, frequencies greater than 20 Hertz, kilohertz. This frequency is the approximate upper audible hearing range, limit of human hearing in healthy young adults. The physical principles of acoustic waves apply ...

and

echocardiogram Echocardiography, also known as cardiac ultrasound, is the use of ultrasound to examine the heart. It is a type of medical imaging, using standard ultrasound or Doppler ultrasound. The visual image formed using this technique is called an echo ...

but no

computer tomography A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or ...

hematology Hematology (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to bloo ...

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

and

microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...

laboratories for medical analyses, a central pharmacy and an outpatient clinic. There is also a 10-bed

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

,Pilsczek, F.H. (2001, July 10). Hospital medicine in Cambodia: a visiting doctor's perspective. ''

Canadian Medical Association Journal The ''Canadian Medical Association Journal'' (French ''Journal de l'Association Médicale Canadienne'') is a peer-reviewed open-access general medical journal published by the Canadian Medical Association. It publishes original clinical research ...

''. Retrieved from http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/165/1/37Fabre-Teste, B., Sokha, Om. (1999). Calmette Hospital, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Assessment of the implementation of the Medical Information System (SIM). Global analysis of the 1998 results. ''Cachiers Santé''. 367-75. Retrieved from http://www.john-libbey-eurotext.fr/en/revues/sante_pub/san/e-docs/00/04/2D/B3/resume.phtml?type=text.html It is a fee-for-service hospital that offers a second tier of care for those who are unable to pay. The hospital provides health care services for the citizens of

(73%), surrounding provinces (17%), and to foreigners (10%). Calmette has approximately fifteen thousand in-patients per year of which 20% are emergency visits. Trauma-related injuries accounted for 47% of the emergency visits to Calmette in 2005. It was the most common reason for seeking emergency services in 2006. In addition, cranial trauma was the leading cause of mortality from the emergency department (accounting for 38% of the mortality rate).

History

Before the Khmer Rouge era, what was then the Calmette Foundation Clinic was a

private hospital A private hospital is a hospital not owned by the government, including for-profit and non-profit hospitals. Funding is by patients themselves ("self-pay"), by insurers, or by foreign embassies. Private hospitals are commonly part, albeit in var ...

for the wealthy. In 1975, the clinic was closed and educated individuals including those working at Calmette either fled abroad or were executed if they could not pose as being uneducated. In 1979 after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, Revolution Hospital as it had been renamed had only three doctors out of the only 40 estimated to be left in the entire country. A team of Vietnamese doctors was brought in, soon to be joined by

Cubans Cubans () are the citizens and nationals of Cuba. The Cuban people have varied origins with the most spoken language being Spanish. The larger Cuban diaspora includes individuals that trace ancestry to Cuba and self-identify as Cuban but are n ...

, East Germans, Russians and Bulgarians. French had been the language of medicine in Cambodia, but soon it became multilingual. and Dr Heng Tay Khy who was named chief of surgery, spoke six languages. In 1989,

Médecins du Monde ''Médecins du monde'' (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which seeks to provide emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates for an end to health ine ...

conducted a study that recommended the hospital be reestablished as a public facility. At the time, it was 90 percent reserved for high-ranking officials and 10 percent for the poor. The French

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

recommended the allocation of resources be reversed. Further, the report recommended massive renovations and reconstruction costing $3 million, and that the name be changed to Calmette Hospital. These changes, funded by the

French government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

and with donations from a variety of other nations since, including Japan, have given Phnom Penh the well-equipped facility it has today. There are 203 beds, 101 of them medical and 57 for surgical patients. Other beds are in the emergency, anaesthetic recovery, maternity and gynecology areas. A modern laboratory wing performs testing procedures and there are x-ray facilities. Plans for the future include expansion of the cardiac treatment center, a new facility for the treatment of monks and work on the intensive care and emergency units.

Governance

This hospital has an unusual statute, with managerial autonomy and a system of cost recovery that currently provides 64% of the hospital's income. Since 1994, it has benefited from a French cooperation program. The French NGO,

, has been present at Calmette since 1990, providing support for "Medicine B", the indigent sector of the medical department in which services provided do not require a charge ("Medicine A" services must be paid for).

Emergency services

Calmette Hospital has two

ambulance An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to ...

s available to conduct its

emergency medical service Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to ...

s of which, one ambulance is permanently on the field and is used primarily for

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

services while the other is located at the hospital's emergency entrance on call when needed. A driver, nurse and/or doctor rotate as part of the emergency response teams. Occasionally, a resident may replace the emergency doctor. About 40% of emergency patients reach the hospital via ambulance. It takes on average four hours to transport a patient to the emergency department. This value takes into account patients being transported from Kandal Province in addition to those from the outskirts of the city. However, many patients simply walk into the emergency department on foot or by the help relatives.

Issues

Calmette's biggest problems involve funding. The facility runs on a budget of approximately 1 million a year, part of which comes from the Ministry of Health and part from fee-paying patients. The mandate of Calmette is to treat the poor and there is always a shortfall as 50% of patients were from indigent backgrounds in a nation lacking social security provisions. International donors make up the difference and the French government is still a major supporter.

Diamond Island tragedy

In the aftermath of the Diamond Island tragedy, during which 456 peoplePetty, M. (2010, November 24). Cambodia government seen unscathed from stampede. ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''. Retrieved fro

/ref> were trampled to death, Calmette Hospital was a key facility in the treatment and identification of victims of the stampede. According to hospital officials, 264 people sought treatment at Calmette Hospital in the wake of the disaster, overwhelming the hospital's facilities.Nimol, T. (2010, December 1). Foreign doctors aid stampede victims. ''

The Phnom Penh Post ''The Phnom Penh Post'' (, ) is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper and prior to the transferr ...

''. Retrieved from http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010120145103/National-news/foreign-doctors-aid-stampede-victims.html Victims of the tragedy received free medical treatment after Prime Minister

Hun Sen Samdech Hun Sen (; , Romanization of Khmer#UNGEGN, UNGEGN: ; born 5 August 1952) is a Cambodian politician and former military officer who currently serves as the List of presidents of the Senate (Cambodia), president of the Senate. He previous ...

committed the government to pay for treatment of injuries inside Cambodia or overseas if necessary.

References

{{Authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1950 Hospitals in Cambodia Buildings and structures in Phnom Penh