Proposing many policies to support doctors working in Hai Duong

On the afternoon of November 6, comrade Le Ngoc Chau, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hai Duong province chaired the first meeting of the Provincial People's Committee in November to resolve and review the contents and submissions reported by a number of departments and branches.

At the meeting, the Provincial People's Committee considered the Department of Health's proposal to approve the draft Resolution regulating policies on support, training, attraction and treatment of medical human resources at public agencies and units in the province for the period 2025-2030.

According to the Department of Health, many indicators of the province's medical human resources such as the number of doctors/10,000 people, pharmacists/10,000 people, doctors working at the grassroots level... are still lower than the national average. The reason is the lack of medical human resources, especially doctors at the grassroots level and some specialties that are difficult to recruit such as psychiatry, pathology, forensic medicine, infectious diseases, emergency resuscitation...

From 2020 to 2023, the entire health sector had 215 civil servants and public employees quit their jobs, including 61 doctors. While the number of doctors recruited each year is relatively low, in 2023 only 29 doctors were recruited. The number of doctors working at the commune level has decreased year by year due to retirement, transfer to higher levels, resignation, etc. Compared to the minimum standard according to regulations, Hai Duong is currently short of 388 doctors. According to the set target, by 2030 the province strives to have 19 doctors/10,000 people, the number of doctors needed is 3,713 people, expected to be short of 1,505 doctors.

The Department of Health assessed that the province's medical human resources are lacking due to lower salaries than non-public units, heavy work pressure, inadequate facilities for medical staff to develop their capacity, high training costs, and self-payment... In addition, the province's policies on training support and attracting human resources in general and medical human resources in particular are not suitable and not attractive enough for specific fields of the medical sector.

The Department of Health proposed the policy of developing a Resolution regulating policies on support, training, attraction and treatment of medical human resources at public agencies and units, including 3 policies. These are training policy, policy on attracting doctors and pharmacists, and treatment policy for doctors working at commune-level health stations.

Regarding training policy, the Department of Health proposed the highest level of support for research and study costs after graduation with a doctoral degree is 100 million VND/person/course; for specialist II doctors and resident doctors, 50 million VND/person/course; for masters and specialist I doctors, 30 million VND/person/course.

Regarding human resource attraction policy, the highest support level is 500 million VND/person for people with PhD or specialist II degrees working in specialized departments of psychiatry, pathology, forensic medicine, forensic psychiatry, infectious diseases, and emergency resuscitation.

The treatment policy for doctors working at health stations is expected to support monthly or daily work at 20% of current salary if working in communes, 15% of current salary when working in wards or towns.

The Provincial People's Committee basically agrees with the proposal of the Department of Health on developing a support policy to attract human resources in the medical sector.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Chau praised the efforts of the health sector in proposing and advising on policies. The Department has consulted the experiences of neighboring provinces and cities to consider proposing support policies suitable to the province's potential.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Chau emphasized that the policy of supporting medical staff with money is not enough but must be combined with facilities, conditions and working environment. This is a special profession, requiring a support mechanism so that doctors and medical staff can feel secure and attached to their agencies and units. The Department of Health urgently received opinions from delegates attending the meeting, adjusted, completed, and advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council for consideration at the year-end meeting. The Provincial People's Council committees accompanied and coordinated with the advisory body of the Provincial People's Committee in the process of drafting resolutions to unify viewpoints and policies.