This is an opportunity for public hospitals and districts to hire more staffs.
For years, public hospitals have faced difficulties in employing staffs because of a regulation of city's resident rights ruling that doctors working in city's public hospitals must have ho khau - permanent residency in HCMC.
Public hospitals have accordingly seen a shortage of staffs because skilled medical students from provinces applied for private clinics rather than public infirmaries.
People’s Committee decided to delete the requisite ho khau in recruitment regulation facilitate public hospital managers to employ good students and suburban districts such as Cu Chi, Can Gio and Nha Be have a chance to hire more doctors. Director of the General Hospital in Nha Be Dr. Nguyen Huu Tho said it can recruit two or three doctors a year while it is allowed to hire more.
However, many experts fretted the new recruitment regulation will create more fierce competitiveness between HCMC and other provinces in attracting good medical workers especially at this time when self-financed hospitals must attract more high-quality doctors.
For instance, Tien Giang province in the Mekong delta in need of more medical workers is worried that good doctors in the province will apply for hospitals in HCMC.
Likewise, director of the Department of Health in Hau Giang Province Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tung said that very few medicine students returned their homeland but most of them applied for private infirmaries in HCMC which offer high salaries and promotion.
Deputy head of a hospital in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh said that new regulation produce fairness amongst doctors. HCMC will attract more good doctors but it should select carefully. Provinces will benefit high quality personnel resource through setting up satellite clinics and transferring doctors to provincial hospitals as per the Ministry of Health’s guideline.
Meantime director of hospital in district 12 Dr. Nhan To Tai said that provinces will have seen severe shortage of good doctors badly affecting treatment quality in provinces. Plus, patients will flock to HCMC causing serious overload.
However, Dr. Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai from the Department of Health in HCMC said the new regulation is paving the way for attracting good medical workers at first but it is more important how hospitals keep high quality doctors by offering good working environment and promotion.
