How to solve the problem of doctor shortage?

At the recent meeting of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee in November (first time) chaired by Mr. Le Ngoc Chau, Chairman of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee, the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee reviewed the proposal of the Department of Health on the proposal to approve the policy of developing a 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, from 2020 to 2023, the entire Hai Duong 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 as prescribed, Hai Duong is currently short of 388 doctors. According to the set target, by 2030 the province strives to have 19 doctors per 10,000 people, the number of doctors needed is 3,713 people, expected to be short of 1,505 doctors.

Hai Duong 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...

Besides, the province's policy on supporting training and attracting human resources in general, and human resources in the medical sector in particular, is not suitable and not attractive enough for specific fields of the medical sector.

Accordingly, the Hai Duong Department of Health proposed the policy of developing a Resolution regulating policies for support, training, attraction and treatment of medical human resources at public agencies and units, including 3 policies. These are training policy, policy to attract doctors, pharmacists and treatment policy for doctors working at commune-level health stations. At the same time, it proposed the highest level of support for research and study costs after graduation with a doctoral degree of 100 million VND/person/course; specialist II doctors, resident doctors 50 million VND/person/course; masters, specialist I doctors is 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.

After listening to the report of the Department of Health and the opinions of the delegates attending the meeting, the leaders of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee basically agreed with the proposal of the Department of Health on building a support policy to attract human resources in the medical sector.

At the same time, it is emphasized that currently, 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 work units.

The Chairman of the Hai Duong Provincial People's Committee requested the Department of Health to promptly receive the opinions of the delegates attending the meeting, adjust, complete, and advise 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 accompany and coordinate with the advisory body of the Provincial People's Committee in the process of drafting resolutions to reach consensus on viewpoints and policies.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/hai-duong-giai-bai-toan-thieu-bac-si-nhu-the-nao.html