Health workers take a sample from a woman for COVID-19 test on Phu Doan street, Hanoi in September 2021. (Photo: VNA) This was revealed in a report by the Vietnam Health Union whichwas recently sent to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.
The report said according to the current regulations on salary and allowance, adoctor after studying for six years and having 18 months of practice to be granteda practising certificate, will receive nearly 4.9 million VND (209 USD) permonth. The amount consists of a salary of nearly 3.5 million VND (149 USD) andan allowance of nearly 1.4 million VND (60 USD). The allowance is equal to 40%of the salary.
The amount of money that the health workers received each month has notdeducted a payment of social and health insurance as regulations.
With the salary, it is very difficult to retain health workers working inpublic health facilities, the report said.
The income of health workers at private health facilities is often triple orquadruple, in some places the income is five or six times more than in publichealth facilities, the report said.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, health officials and employees have become thefrontline force in disease prevention and control. Working intensity wasespecially hard when the number of new cases increased, the report said.
“The health workers hardly have days off and they have to work with highintensity for a long time, especially, for health workers in localities withlarge populations such as HCM City and several southern provinces,” the reportsaid.
Health workers often have to work in a dangerous environment, with high risk ofcontracting the disease, and in some cases it can be life-threatening. Ithas profoundly affected the psychology and working motivation of healthworkers, the report said.
The report also revealed another cause of people leaving was the recent casesof violations of the law in the procurement of drugs, supplies and medicalequipment which affected the working environment of health staff.
It also caused a lack of modern equipment to deploy high-technology medicalservices, lack of medicine, even a lack of common medical tools and protectiveequipment for health workers.
Therefore, health workers tend to move to private health facilities with betterconditions and working environment, the report said.
The report added that the strong development of private hospitals and healthclinics with modern and friendly working environment is another reason publichealth workers are making the switch. Private medical facilities are willing tooffer high salaries, while public health facilities do not have a mechanism tokeep them.
The union has proposed to raise the level of allowances for public employeesworking in preventive medicine and grassroots health from 40% to 100% in orderto attract more staff.
At the same time, the Party and Government should allow the Ministry of Healthto adjust the price of medical services, including the price of medicalexaminations and treatment services for health insurance participants. It willhelp increase the revenue of public health facilities so that the public healthfacilities will have more funds to increase the income for health workers.
Additionally, relevant authorities propose the Government toprovide funding to support health workers for their contributions in thefight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Each worker should receive an allowance,equivalent to their monthly salary or double.
It is advised to consider raising the starting salary for newly-graduateddoctors to attract young doctors and provide more allowances for seniordoctors, the union said.
The Government should have special support policies for health officials andemployees working in extremely difficult areas, where natural disasters andepidemics often occur, the union said.
It is necessary to have preferential policies to attract doctors, nurses andtechnicians working in the fields of tuberculosis, psychiatry and emergencyresuscitation./.
VNA
