Hospitals see more patients, surgeries during long holiday

Nguyen Duc Chinh, deputy head of the planning department under the Hanoi-based Vietnam-Germany Hospital, said a great number of patients visited his hospital over the holiday. On average it saw 140 to 200 people per day.

Last week,, 61 out of 146 people who went to the hospital did so for injuries related to traffic accidents. As many as 37 of them suffered from concussions.

Chinh said that on a normal day the hospital performed around 30 surgeries, but the number increased sharply during the holiday. The hospital had 44 surgeries on April 30 and 49 on May 1.

Some were hospitalised after participating in fights fueled by alcohol. The Vietnam-Germany Hospital received seven such patients on April 29 and 10 on April 30.

Duong Duc Hung, head of Bach Mai Hospital's planning department, said that on average over the holiday the hospital received 100 to 130 people. They went to the hospital for heart disease, high blood pressure, alcohol poisoning and digestive diseases.

During the holiday more than 70,000 people in HCM City went to hospital for health checks and surgeries, and more than 40 died, according to the city's Department of Health. Nearly 1,500 were hospitalised for traffic accidents and more than 300 for scuffles.

On May 4, the first working day after the holiday, most main roads in HCM City were jammed, including Truong Chinh-Cong Hoa and other roads in Tan Phu, Tan Binh and Go Vap districts, according to Dan tri e-newspaper.

Roads weren't as overloaded in Hanoi, but terminals were crowded as people returned to the capital from vacation.

Nguyen Hai Anh, 23, from the northern province of Phu Tho, said he couldn't take a coach on May 3 because they were all already booked. He had to wait until May 4 to come back to the University of Technology in Hanoi.