Angkor Hospital eyes trauma centre for children

The facility will have an ICU, emergency room, operating theatre and a surgical ward.

Siem Reap-based Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) plans to set up a Trauma and Critical Care Centre in Cambodia, where most children live in rural areas with limited access to intensive care.

The centre will house four key areas — a paediatric intensive care unit (ICU), emergency room, operating theatre, and a surgical ward, CEO and hospital Director Ngoun Chanpheaktra told Healthcare Asia. 

“It will be supported by our nutrition, physiotherapy, and medical social work teams,” he said. “This also includes speciality surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and operating nurses.”

AHC, which provides specialist care for Cambodian children with long-term, rare and acute conditions, will provide emergency care training through the centre as it tries to curb one of the Southeast Asian nation’s leading causes of death — road accidents, Pheaktra said.

He said health workers must have the skills needed to reduce the number of children dying from such traumatic injuries and various diseases.

“In addition to training our staff in these skills, we will be training students and community healthcare workers in emergency care,” he added.

Pheaktra also outlined plans to equip the centre with modern medical technologies, including a skin grafting machine used in surgery.

The machine helps apply grafts, which involve transplanting skin from one part of a patient's body to another area damaged by burns, trauma, infection, or surgery.

The centre will also have a C-arm machine, an advanced imaging device based on X-ray technology that allows flexible patient positions.

Pheaktra, who has been with AHC as a paediatrician since its founding in 1999, also plans to incorporate other medical equipment into the centre, such as CT scanners, mobile X-ray machines, cystoscopes, and bronchoscopes.

“These [equipment] will allow us to quickly, accurately, and skilfully diagnose and treat children with a range of complicated injuries and illnesses,” he said.

As a nonprofit healthcare organisation, the hospital relies on local fundraising initiatives to ensure long-term sustainability, Pheaktra said.

“Two years ago, we launched a patient contribution system for families that can afford to contribute a small fee towards the cost of their child's care,” he said. “This has been very successful in providing us with a reliable and stable source of income.”

This also applies to their forthcoming Trauma and Critical Care Centre, where AHC will launch a new fundraising initiative in November to secure funds. “This is to ensure we have all the elements we need to keep providing this care in the long term,” Pheaktra said.