Why do most school health workers in Thanh Hoa not have medical expertise?

TPO - According to the results of inspection and supervision of school health work in Thanh Hoa, the majority of staff performing school health work are part-time staff without medical expertise.

According to the report on the results of inspection and supervision of school health work in the 2023-2024 school year by the Center for Disease Control under the Thanh Hoa Department of Health in 2 phases (April, May 2024 and October, November, December 2024) at 96 schools in 16 districts in the plains, midlands and coastal areas, the majority of schools at all levels have deployed and implemented school health work. In the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years, the Thanh Hoa Departmentof Education and Training organized capacity building training and issued certificates to 2/3 of the staff concurrently working in school health work in the province.

However, through inspection and supervision, it is shown that the majority of staff performing school health work at all school levels are part-time staff, without medical expertise, and have been trained and updated on school health knowledge. However, due to the lack of teachers, school health staff are busy with professional work and have not allocated much time for this work.

In December 2023, many students of Dien Bien 1 Primary School (Thanh Hoa City) were hospitalized after having lunch at school.

In addition, some schools have financial difficulties in purchasing necessary equipment for the medical room to serve medical work. The coordination between social insurance, the Department of Education and Training and the medical centers of districts, towns and cities in the allocation of 5% from the health insurance fund to serve the health care work for students in some units has not been implemented.

In addition, the documents guiding the implementation of school health work still have many shortcomings, the treatment regime for medical staff has not received due attention; the conditions of facilities and equipment have not been guaranteed...

In addition to recommending that functional units and sectors have solutions to effectively implement school health work, the Center for Disease Control (Thanh Hoa Department of Health) also recommended that the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province have a policy to recruit school health workers with medical expertise for all school levels.

Especially schools with boarding kitchens, preschools and preferential treatment for school health staff so that staff can stay long-term and work with peace of mind.

Hoang Lam

Source: https://tienphong.vn/vi-sao-da-so-can-bo-y-te-truong-hoc-o-thanh-hoa-khong-co-chuyen-mon-y-post1709468.tpo