Director of Nghia Dan Medical Center: Most worried about sick medical staff

(Baonghean.vn) - Citing the shortage of workers, Director of Nghia Dan District Medical Center Vi Van Que expressed that his biggest concern is that medical staff are sick.

"Most worried about medical staff getting sick"

At the meeting with the survey delegation of the Provincial People's Council's Ethnic Committee on the implementation of a number of policies to support population and health care for ethnic minorities in Nghia Dan district from 2014 to 2016, Mr. Vi Van Que - Director of the District Health Center said that since the implementation of the medical examination and treatment network, most districts and towns in the province have been worried, but in Nghia Dan alone, the patient rate has increased since 2016.

According to him, this proves that the quality of medical examination and treatment and the medical ethics of medical staff are trusted and highly appreciated by the people.

The delegation surveyed the equipment of the Operating Room at Nghia Dan Medical Center. Photo: Thu Giang

However, the new regulation, which took effect on January 1, 2017, only allows general practitioners to examine patients, causing the locality to fall into a state of shortage of staff. Mr. Que said: “For example, the District Medical Center has 31 staff, we only leave 10 people for preventive work, the rest focus on treatment work because of the shortage of human resources. Therefore, the most worrying thing is that medical staff and workers are sick…”.

The head of the District Health Center also pointed out the current situation of Nghia Dan not having enough doctors in the commune. At the time of the district separation, each commune was guaranteed 1 doctor, but after that there were some transfers, so now only 18/25 commune health stations have doctors. "Therefore, there are programs to train doctors on-site for 6 years, we cannot send people to study, because if we send them, who will stay at home to examine patients?", Mr. Vi Van Que worried.

According to Joint Circular No. 08/2007/TTLT-BYT-BNV guiding the staffing standards in state-owned health facilities, Nghia Dan still lacks a lot of staff, so through the Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation, the leaders of the District Health Center proposed that the province give the commune health station a "1 out 1 in" mechanism instead of "2 out 1 in".

"The psychology of wanting more children, not low education"

Patient care at the Intensive Care Unit of Nghia Dan Medical Center. Photo: Thu Giang

From 2014 to 2016, Nghia Dan handled more than 1,100 cases of population policy violations. Explaining the reason for the high rate of third child births, Ms. Van Thi Hong Lam - Head of the District Health Department said that it was not due to low education level or having only one child, but due to the mentality of "more children, more wealth".

“When we heard the news about the population pyramid being reversed and Vietnam entering the aging population phase, we received phone calls from people asking, ‘Are we allowed to give birth freely now?’, meaning they updated the information very quickly and promptly,” said Ms. Lam.

She explained that in today's society, due to many reasons such as illness, traffic accidents, social evils, etc., people want to have more children "as a precaution", not because of low education.

The Head of the Nghia Dan District Health Department also said that there should be a mechanism to combine population collaborators and village health workers, because holding both positions increases their support level, is more practical, and is more effective.

Sharing this view, Head of the Provincial Ethnic Committee Luong Thanh Hai affirmed that this move is under the authority of the district, and added that the province is encouraging concurrent positions at all levels, reducing staff, increasing allowances, and encouraging them to do better.

However, Mr. Vo Tien Sy - Vice Chairman of Nghia Dan District People's Committee pointed out that the reason for not yet merging the positions of population collaborators and village health workers is because these two positions are held by two different sectors, two units pay the regime, the population specialist is assigned to the commune health station, but works at the commune People's Committee and receives salary from the population center.

“Don't consider health insurance card as pension book”

At the meeting, the Head of the Provincial Ethnic Committee suggested that Nghia Dan should step up propaganda work with the people about health insurance cards. "In reality, there are districts where people consider health insurance cards as pension books, and they have to go get medicine every month, so we need to propagate so that people understand and encourage people to go to the doctor only when they are sick, contributing to reducing the risk of the social insurance fund going bankrupt," said Mr. Hai.

Over the past 2 years, the issuance of health insurance cards in Nghia Dan has been slow and incorrect due to many objective factors, such as: incorrect synthesis at the hamlet, commune, and district levels; there is no specific address on the health insurance card, so it is not known which hamlet to send it to; when the loudspeaker invites people to come and receive the card, those who need it urgently come and receive it early, those who do not need it yet can leave it alone, the card is still at the hamlet chief's house; receiving the card without checking carefully, only discovering the error when examining the patient...

Mr. Vuong Dinh Nhat - Deputy Director of the District Social Insurance pointed out some other quite common cases: "Some communes make a list and send it up with the wife's name the same as the husband's name, or take the name from the household registration book, but the name on the ID card is different."

Mr. Nhat also said that Nghia Dan Social Insurance has basically completed issuing health insurance cards to ethnic minorities, advised the District People's Committee to review poor and near-poor households, and has completed 21/25 communes and towns to implement the regime for these subjects in accordance with current regulations, and is urgently reissuing cases of incorrect issuance to ensure the rights of the people.

Head of the Ethnic Committee of the Provincial People's Council Lo Thi Kim Ngan concluded the working session. Photo: Thu Giang

Concluding the meeting, Ms. Lo Thi Kim Ngan - Head of the Ethnic Committee of the Provincial People's Council acknowledged the achievements of Nghia Dan district in the recent period, assessed the direction and implementation of policies to support population and health care for ethnic minorities in the area as synchronous and serious, basically ensuring health care for the people.

However, according to Ms. Ngan, there are still some limitations and shortcomings identified after the survey, including: limitations in propaganda work on population policy, lack of human resources and equipment for medical examination and treatment, management by local authorities in some places is not specific and inadequate;... These issues were compiled and researched by the survey team of the Provincial People's Council's Ethnic Committee to make appropriate recommendations to functional agencies in the province as well as central ministries and branches.

Earlier that morning, the survey team also investigated the actual conditions of facilities, equipment, medical examination and treatment, and the implementation of population policies at Nghia Long Commune Health Station and Nghia Dan District Health Center.

Thu Giang