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Bệnh viện Bạch Mai
Say “benh vien Bach Mai”. On Giai Phong Road in Dong Da, next to the French hospital, about four kilometres south of Hoan Kiem Lake — every driver knows it.
- TypePublic — Ministry of Health national referral hospital, the largest in Vietnam
- BedsAbout 1,900
- Address78 Giai Phong Road, Kim Lien, Dong Da, Hanoi 100000
- Hotline+84 969 851 616
- Websitebachmai.gov.vn
- HoursOn-demand outpatient clinics Monday to Friday, reception from 05:00 and consultations from 06:00; the A9 emergency centre takes emergencies
- LanguagesVietnamese; English is limited and cannot be relied on outside a few departments
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
Founded in 1911 and now the biggest hospital in the country, Bach Mai is the Ministry of Health’s national referral centre: its own site describes a scale of about 1,900 beds, more than a thousand doctors and over 4,300 staff, organised into institutes and centres including the A9 emergency centre, an intensive care centre, a respiratory institute and a haematology and blood transfusion institute.
What it is known for
Being the end of the line. Bach Mai has been treating patients since 1911 and is the hospital other Vietnamese hospitals refer to when they run out of options: its own website describes a scale of roughly 1,900 beds, more than a thousand doctors and over 4,300 medical staff across dozens of institutes, centres and clinical departments. The A9 emergency centre and the intensive care centre are the best known; the respiratory institute, the haematology and blood transfusion institute, the cardiology and oncology centres and the digestive surgery centre sit alongside them. A second campus operates outside the city.
Who it suits
Travellers without insurance who need real medicine at a price they can pay, and anyone whose condition is genuinely serious — the specialists here are among the best in the country, whatever the waiting room looks like. The trade-offs are real: it is crowded, it runs in Vietnamese, forms and signage assume you read the language, and a foreigner alone will struggle. Bring a Vietnamese speaker if you possibly can, or use it for the emergency and transfer to an international hospital once you are stable.
Cost and insurance
Public-hospital prices, which by Western standards are very low: a consultation, tests and medicine here cost a small fraction of the same visit at Hanoi French Hospital or Vinmec. Foreigners without Vietnamese health insurance pay the full listed fee, in cash or by card at the cashier, and no travel insurer bills a public hospital directly — this is pay-and-claim. Ask for an itemised receipt and, before you leave, an English-language medical report; both are routine requests but you have to make them.
Getting there
At 78 Giai Phong Road in Dong Da, roughly four kilometres south of Hoan Kiem Lake and immediately beside Hanoi French Hospital — fifteen to twenty minutes by car from the Old Quarter outside the rush. Every driver in Hanoi knows Bach Mai by name; it is one of the city’s landmarks in its own right. The hospital publishes a hotline, +84 969 851 616, and an appointment switchboard on 1900 888 866 that only works from a Vietnamese phone. For an emergency, call 115 rather than making your own way.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 115 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 5 hospitals in Hanoi
- Hanoi French HospitalPrivate, about 170 beds, Off Giai Phong Road, south of Hoan Kiem Lake.
- Hong Ngoc General HospitalPrivate, 55 Yen Ninh, between Truc Bach Lake and West Lake.
- Thu Cuc International General HospitalPrivate, 286 Thuy Khue, on the south shore of West Lake.
- Viet Duc University HospitalPublic, 40 Trang Thi, minutes west of Hoan Kiem Lake.
- Vinmec Times City International HospitalPrivate, Inside the Times City development on Minh Khai.