Director of Nghe An Department of Health proposes solutions to limit the situation of public health workers quitting or leaving their jobs

On December 6, at the 25th Session of the 18th Nghe An Provincial People's Council, Ms. Le Thi Hoai Chung - Director of the Department of Health answered questions.

People must be smart customers when they want to beautify themselves.

Questioning the commander of the health sector, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy An (Anh Son unit) said that in recent years, cosmetic facilities and beauty services have appeared more and more in the province, especially Vinh city.

However, according to delegate An, through the feedback of voters and reality, many facilities are operating against regulations, operating without a license. Could you please tell us about the role of state management in this field in the past and solutions in the future?

Answering the question of delegate Thuy An, Director of the Department of Health Le Thi Hoai Chung said that according to regulations, aesthetics are divided into 4 forms: Cosmetic hospitals (licensed by the Ministry of Health); Cosmetic clinics or multidisciplinary clinics with cosmetic specialties (licensed by the Department of Health); Spraying, tattooing, and embroidery service establishments using topical anesthetics (no need to be licensed, the establishments self-announce to the District Health Department); Beauty spas (not a medical type).

Thus, currently only cosmetic hospitals, cosmetic clinics or multidisciplinary clinics with cosmetic specialties are types of cosmetic surgery managed by the health sector.

Ms. Chung said that according to Decision No. 2714 dated October 17, 2024 on the regulations on assignment and coordination of state management of non-public medical and pharmaceutical practice activities in Nghe An province, the People's Committees at the district level are responsible for inspecting, supervising, and handling specialized clinics, unlicensed clinics, cosmetic establishments, pharmacies, drugstores, etc. in the area under their management.

The Department of Health is responsible for inspecting, checking, supervising, and handling hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies, branches, etc.

According to statistics, up to now, there are more than 550 cosmetic facilities in the province, including RHM Hospital - Thai Thuong Hoang Cosmetic and 5 specialized cosmetic clinics of the medical type, the rest are not of the medical type so they are not under the management of the health sector.

The Director of the Department of Health stated that, in recent times, according to reports, some facilities, although not in the medical field, have encroached on the medical field in their operations, affecting the health and economy of service users.

Faced with that situation, in 2024, the Department of Health coordinated with Vinh City Police to inspect 10 facilities, of which 4 facilities were fined; 3 facilities were suspended; 5 facilities were closed and stopped after receiving complaints and involvement of authorities.

To overcome the above situation, the Director of the Department of Health said that it is necessary to strengthen propaganda work to raise awareness, thereby changing people's behavior so that each person is a smart customer when having aesthetic and beauty needs.

For beauty establishments, it is also necessary to propagate to raise awareness, perform within the scope of expertise; improve ethics and self-esteem in providing quality and guaranteed services. Strongly communicate with violating establishments so that people know to avoid them.

In addition, Ms. Chung said that it is necessary to continue to coordinate with functional agencies to strengthen inspection, examination and strictly handle violations against cosmetic establishments that have received many complaints from citizens.

At the same time, it is recommended that the People's Committees of districts and towns regularly review, update, classify, and make a specific list of cosmetic establishments to facilitate management and monitoring; direct the Department of Health to coordinate with departments and offices to strengthen inspection and strictly handle violations.

Responding to the question of delegate Le Thi Kim Chung (Quynh Luu unit) about the causes and solutions to prevent and combat stunting, the Director of the Department of Health said that this is an issue that has been included in the targets of the Resolution as well as in the reports.

In 2023, the rate of stunting malnutrition in Nghe An was 24.4%, compared to the national average (18%). Thus, Nghe An is higher than the national average and is in the weak group.

Regarding the cause, the Director of the Department of Health said that Nghe An is a province with many difficulties, a large area, and a large population. When the malnutrition project began, the province had a low starting point, meaning that it had a high rate of malnourished children, of which stunted children accounted for a high percentage.

When the project to prevent and combat malnutrition began, it decreased by 0.8 - 1% per year and in the last 3 years it has decreased by about 0.6%. Objectively, the work to prevent and combat malnutrition has achieved encouraging results.

The second reason is that people's awareness of changing their behavior regarding nutritional care, preparing reasonable meals, and caring for children in disadvantaged areas is facing many limitations.

Access to health services for people in remote areas is also difficult, so detecting malnourished children in time to find solutions to improve them is not easy.

Communication and counseling in remote areas is difficult, especially for pregnant women and children.

To improve this situation, in the coming time, Director of the Department of Health Le Thi Hoai Chung said that it is necessary to strengthen the nutritional care support package in the first 1,000 days of life; promote communication work to improve people's understanding of a full, balanced and reasonable diet; implement home health care groups; supplement Vitamin A and periodically deworm to achieve a high rate.

Increasing income for health workers is a fundamental solution.

Raising questions from delegates to the Director of the Department of Health, the chairman of the meeting said that currently many doctors and nurses in public facilities have quit their jobs to work outside, leading to a shortage of human resources in public facilities and suggested that the health sector find solutions to overcome this.

Responding to the question raised by the meeting chairman, the Director of the Department of Health said that this is an issue that the industry is wondering and worrying about.

However, in her personal opinion, Ms. Chung believes that for medical staff, moving from the public sector to the private sector is not a "brain drain". Because, in any position, they are responsible for taking care of people's health and providing medical examination and treatment. However, there needs to be solutions to this problem.

The Director of the Department of Health stated the figures: In 2022, the number of staff who requested to leave the industry was 145, including 61 doctors; in 2023, 74 medical staff resigned, including 22 doctors; in 2024, 71 medical staff resigned, including 39 doctors. Thus, the rate of doctors requesting to leave public hospitals is 30-45%, mainly going to private hospitals or opening their own clinics.

According to Ms. Chung, there are many different reasons why public health workers want to leave, the majority of which is that the income of health workers in the public system is still low. Meanwhile, private health facilities can pay 6-7 times more, even 10-20 times more.

The system of private medical facilities in the province is large, so there are many attractive policies. When doctors go out, they can practice their expertise in many different facilities. In addition, the working environment in public medical facilities is stressful.

To overcome this situation, Director of the Department of Health Le Thi Hoai Chung said that the first solution is to improve the working environment, creating a comfortable spirit for medical staff to work with peace of mind, enthusiastically contribute and be creative.

However, the fundamental solution is to increase the income of public health workers. To do so, the price of medical services must be calculated correctly and sufficiently. At the same time, there must be policies to attract high-quality human resources for the health sector.

Discussing further about the issue of human resources for the health sector, Director of the Department of Home Affairs Nguyen Viet Hung said that in the past, the Department has coordinated well with the Department of Health to ensure human resources for the health sector, to examine and treat people.

In 2022, when Decree 08 is no longer in effect, the new Decree is still in draft, with information from hospitals, a large number of highly qualified doctors under contract are at risk of leaving public hospitals for other units, the Department proposed that the Provincial People's Committee take the lower limit of the draft new Decree, the Provincial People's Committee create conditions for hospitals to recruit more qualified doctors to work in public health.

Every year, according to Decision No. 01 of the Provincial People's Committee, based on the requests of hospitals and the Department of Health, the Department of Home Affairs has promptly advised the Provincial People's Committee to send health workers to postgraduate training and advanced programs. To date, more than 307 health workers have been sent to training to improve their qualifications and thereby help public hospitals retain good doctors.

However, according to the Director of the Department of Home Affairs, to retain good doctors, first of all, it is the responsibility of hospitals and the health sector to create a good working environment, better income, and to develop their professional skills, then they will stay, otherwise they will leave.

For autonomous hospitals of group III, based on the revenue of the hospitals, they are still eligible to recruit civil servants.