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City leaders at the session |
Yesterday afternoon, the Standing Committee of the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City had a monitoring session on the implementation of the program ‘Improving grassroots medical capacity - Taking care of residents' health’ carried out by the City People's Committee.
At the session, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Duong Anh Duc revealed that in the immediate future, the Department of Health will continue to give its advice on medical workers’ income policies; policies on training and improving the qualifications of medical staff and public investment to the committee.
Addressing the supervision session, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, said that implementing policies according to the Resolution 01/2022/NQ-HDND of the People's Council on specific policies to strengthen and improve the capacity of medical stations in districts in the control of the Covid-19 epidemic until 2025 and the Community Health Development Project aims to protect, care for and improve people's health in the city between 2021 and 2030 have achieved many positive results after nearly 2 years of implementation.
So far, approximately 1,123 medical workers have been recruited to work in grassroots health centers and over VND66 billion was spent to pay for them. Specifically, of young doctors participating in the practice program at the hospital associated with healthcare facilities in districts, 375 doctors are working at 284/310 grassroots medical stations meanwhile, the city also attracted 153 retired medical workers to work in these stations.
At the job fair recently organized by the department, only 18/204 young graduating doctors chose to work at public health centers accounting for 9 percent. Young doctors are not interested in working in small medical facilities with poor facilities and equipment and a lack of career advancement opportunities. Worse, in 2021, 2022 and October 2023, roughly 1,024 medical staff of district hospitals and medical centers in the city decided to quit their jobs.
However, there are some exceptions. Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong said that Cu Chi District Hospital now has over 100 highly qualified and skilled doctors and nurses whereas prior, the facility had only had a few dozen doctors. This hospital can recruit staff thanks to the local authority’s great support.
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Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health Associate Professor Tang Chi Thuong at the meeting |
To overcome difficulties, the Ho Chi Minh City health sector proposed that the Government consider amending the regulations in Clause 1, Article 2 of Decree 117/2014/ND-CP dated December 8, 2014 of the Government on by converting the allocation of medical stations according to administrative boundaries in districts, communes, towns to allocation based on population size which ensures each area with the population of 30,000-50,000 people to have one healthcare station. The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council is considering for approval of the special policy for developing the network of community health collaborators.
Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Duong Anh Duc affirmed that the city’s entire state machinery always takes heed of improving the quality of public health and health care of city dwellers. In addition to the resolutions and projects that have been implemented, the city recently organized free health checks for tens of thousands of elderly people. However, despite the advantages, the city is still facing many difficulties.
