Public hospital, Tumnup Teuk, Khan Boeung Keng Kang.
Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital
One of Cambodia’s two big public referral hospitals — open since 1960, on Street 271 south of the centre, and listed as open around the clock.
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មន្ទីរពេទ្យមិត្តភាពខ្មែរ-សូវៀត
Say “montir pet Khmer-Soviet”, or simply the Soviet hospital. On Street 271 in Tumnup Teuk, south of the centre, about twenty minutes by tuk-tuk from the riverside.
Romanised, roughly “montir pet mittapheap Khmer-Soviet”; drivers know it as the Soviet hospital.
- TypePublic — Ministry of Health national referral hospital, built with Soviet assistance and open since 1960
- AddressYothapol Khemarak Phoumin Boulevard (Street 271), Sangkat Tumnup Teuk, Khan Boeung Keng Kang, Phnom Penh 120108
- Switchboard+855 23 217 524
- Switchboard, second line+855 23 217 764
- Ambulance, nationwide119
- LanguagesKhmer; limited English
- Opened1960
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
The other large state hospital in Phnom Penh, on Yothapol Khemarak Phoumin Boulevard — Street 271 — south of the centre. Built with Soviet assistance and open since 1960, it is a Ministry of Health national referral hospital handling major surgery, cancer care and emergencies. Like Calmette it is cheap, busy and stretched; like Calmette it is somewhere a visitor ends up rather than chooses. Knowing it exists matters most if you are staying in the southern districts.
What it is known for
Volume. Opened in 1960 with Soviet help and still one of the two biggest hospitals in the country, it is a Ministry of Health national referral centre taking complex surgery, cancer care and the emergencies that arrive from the southern half of the city. Its emergency department is listed as open around the clock. What it does not have is the international-facing side Calmette has picked up over the years through its French connection: less English, less familiarity with foreign patients and foreign insurers, and paperwork entirely in Khmer. It is a hospital for Cambodians, doing a hard job on very little, and it should be read that way rather than compared with a private hospital.
Who it suits
Realistically, a traveller brought here by ambulance, or one staying in the southern districts who needs a public emergency department quickly. For anything you can actually choose, Calmette is the better-known public option and the private hospitals are better still if you can pay or claim. If you do end up here, expect long waits, crowded wards and a language barrier, and get word to your insurer’s assistance line as early as you can. That call is the one that decides whether you stay where you are or are moved somewhere else, and it works better started early than late.
Cost and insurance
Public-hospital prices, which in Cambodia means a small fraction of what any private hospital in the city charges for the same treatment. Payment is at the cashier, in dollars or riel. No insurer direct-bills here, so it is pay-and-claim; the practical risk is not the bill but the paperwork, because a claim needs an itemised receipt and a medical report your insurer can read. Ask for both, in English, before you are discharged rather than afterwards, and photograph everything you are handed while it is still in your hand.
Getting there
On Yothapol Khemarak Phoumin Boulevard, better known simply as Street 271, in Tumnup Teuk, south of the centre — about twenty minutes by tuk-tuk from the riverside and rather less from the Boeung Keng Kang guesthouse area. Many listings still give the district as Chamkarmon, which is where it sat before the city redrew its boundaries; the hospital has not moved. Drivers know it as the Soviet hospital. Dial 119 for an ambulance; the switchboard is +855 23 217 524.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 119 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 4 hospitals in Phnom Penh
- Calmette HospitalPublic, about 250 beds, Monivong Boulevard, north end of the centre.
- Sunrise Japan Hospital Phnom PenhPrivate, about 50 beds, Chroy Changvar, over the Japanese Friendship Bridge.
- Central HospitalPrivate, Street 154, a block behind Central Market.
- Royal Phnom Penh HospitalPrivate, Russian Federation Boulevard, Sen Sok.