Medical professionals at the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital are still busy seeing their usual number of patients, both pregnant women and children, even though they have suffered a decline in funding due to the Covid-19 crisis, according to the board of trustees of the Cambodia Kantha Bopha Foundation on January 19.
In a press release, the foundation said that last year it had received $6 million from donors. Of that number, the government had donated $2 million from the proceeds of tickets to see Angkor Wat. Another $1 million came from the Cambodian Red Cross and $3 million from other donors – an overall decline of 20 per cent compared to donations in 2019.
Dr Denis Laurent, the foundation director-general, told The Post: “Fortunately, we are working as normal for children and pregnant women even though we have received less donations from Switzerland and Cambodia due to the Covid-19 situation.”
A report from the foundation said that last year, the hospitals had diagnosed and treated 639,268 children in the outpatient departments and 132,443 women in the obstetrics departments.
Of the 133,026 children admitted to the hospitals’ inpatient departments, 4,488 had been treated for severe dengue fever and 1,492 children had developed chikungunya.
A total of 24,822 children required surgery.
Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth serves as chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees. He instructed the foundation secretary to make efforts to seek more funding from donors from every corner of the nation to help sustain the hospital and to promote the spirit of “Khmer helping Khmer” widely.
