Voters in provinces and cities proposed increasing on-duty allowances for medical staff, especially at commune health stations, from 18,000 VND to 100,000 VND per night, to ensure income.
The petition was put forward by voters in the provinces of Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Lang Son… when reflecting on issues related to the health sector after the 7th session of the 15th National Assembly. Accordingly, voters in Ha Giang province reflect that the current low duty allowance regime does not ensure a living standard, directly affecting the quality of task performance. Specifically, the commune health station staff’s weekday duty fee is currently 18,750 VND/night, on weekends it is 32,500 VND, and the meal fee is 15,000 VND/night.
Therefore, voters proposed that the Ministry of Health increase the allowance for on-duty allowances and meals on weekdays to 100,000 VND/night; Weekends up to 150,000/night. Holidays increased from 45,000 to 200,000 VND/night. Food support on weekends and holidays from 15,000 to 150,000/day.
In addition, allowances for medical staff in general are currently low, and voters have proposed increasing them. Over the past 12 years, the base salary has been adjusted 8 times, currently 2,340,000 VND/month, but the allowances for surgery, procedures, and meals have not been adjusted accordingly.
Many medical staff have almost no days off and work at high intensity for long periods of time. While salary and allowances only partially ensure life needs, they are not commensurate with work characteristics and training process.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, from the beginning of 2021 to mid-2022, the country will have nearly 10,000 medical workers quitting their jobs, of which the most are in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, An Giang, Da Nang. One of the main reasons why they quit their jobs is due to economic pressure, low income and the desire to find a better working environment.
Doctors and medical staff working at the palliative care department, Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital facility 2, June 2024. Image: Quynh Tran
Responding to this issue, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that he is urgently completing the draft Decree on new occupational allowances and the Decision to amend and supplement regulations on a number of specific allowance regimes. for civil servants, public employees, workers in public health facilities and anti-epidemic allowances. The draft will be sent for comments to ministries and localities to complete the dossier and send it to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal, submit to the Government for consideration and promulgation according to regulations.
However, the Ministry of Health has not specified how much the increase is.
The Minister also said he always attaches importance to retaining medical staff at the grassroots level. The Ministry of Health has rotated young volunteer doctors to work in remote, border and island areas under Project 585.
This project aims to train and provide level I specialist doctors with high technical qualifications for difficult areas. From 2013 to present, 25 level I specialist doctor courses have been organized with 699 doctors, of which 402 doctors work in 94 difficult and border districts in the two mountainous provinces of the North, Central and West. Original. 297 doctors are being trained at 5 medical universities. The project continues to be implemented until 2030.