The State Central Clinic, which offers all kinds of medical services to patients from 18 provinces and Ulaanbaatar, has joined the list of hospitals in trouble. Four of the five departments of the 400-bed hospital near the clinic were moved to the larger hospital at the clinic on March 22 after the Professional Monitoring Agency declared its building was unsafe. This has meant a sharp rise in the number of cases the central clinic hospital now has to handle, without any corresponding expansion of facilities. The increase in the number of in-patients also means more risk of infections. Hospital workers say a number of pickpockets and other unsavory characters are now taking advantage of the presence of more than 1,000 people daily in the hospital.

There was little planning before the move and that is causing several problems to the staff. As it is, the hospital employs 760 people, despite there being provision for only 630 in the budget. Doctors and nurses have not been paid any incentive or over-time allowance for more than a year now.

Apart from the crowd of patients, the hospital has eight private pharmacies, 10 private clinics and several cafeterias. The Director, L.Jambaljav, seems too overwhelmed with his task of finding MNT10 billion to demolish the old hospital and build a new one to care for such inconveniences.

The last state hospital was built in 1980.