Overcoming difficulties in population activities after merger
(Baonghean.vn) - After nearly 1 month of merging the Population - Family Planning Center and the district-level health center, population - family planning work in the province is gradually stabilizing. However, there are still many difficulties and problems and are waiting for guidance from relevant departments and branches.
Efforts to overcome difficulties
Up to this point, those who dopopulation workin Con Cuong district has officially started working at the Population Department of the District Health Center. Despite the difficulties and challenges, the District Health Center has had a smooth "start" when in just over a week, it has implemented many meaningful activities.
 |
| A communication session on reproductive health for students in Con Cuong district. Photo: PV. |
That is, in coordination with the Community Learning Center and Binh Chuan Secondary School, organizing communication on adolescent and youth reproductive health care and preventing early marriage and incestuous marriage for more than 200 students of the school.
Through this communication session, the school's students were equipped with basic knowledge about reproductive health care and its consequences.early marriage, incestuous marriage - a rather painful problem in mountainous districts, including Ky Son district. In particular, in this propaganda campaign, with the participation of the Medical Center and related departments, propaganda activities were also coordinated to communicate more about prevention work, integrating propaganda about dengue fever, and vaccines for the subjects.
During these days, in response to World Contraception Day, the Medical Stations of Mon Son and Bong Khe communes have also organized many activities such as providing free consultation and providing some contraceptive methods for mothers with young children, communicating about population work in the new situation, and marketing contraceptive products to couples of childbearing age.
“After the merger, the staff structure of the District Population Office is basically stable and has not changed much compared to before. The merger has initially had some advantages, such as instead of only disseminating information about population, the Population Office has coordinated with other offices to disseminate information about disease prevention and control, so listeners will be able to receive more information.”
After the merger, although there have been changes, population activities in localities have basically tried to maintain. Particularly in August and September,Provincial Department of Population and Family Planningcooperated with the medical centers of Anh Son, Tuong Duong, and Tan Ky districts to successfully organize the contest "Elderly people live happily, live healthily", creating a playground and opportunity for healthy and practical exchange for the elderly.
Anh Son District Medical Center was the first unit to implement the program right after the merger. Mr. Ho Sy Luc - Head of the Center's Population Department said: "Although it was just merged, when receiving the province's policy, the District Medical Center closely directed the program from the district to the commune and received the support of the people.
 |
| Elderly people of Thanh Chuong district participate in the exchange at the contest "Elderly people live happily, live healthily". Photo: Manh Dat |
We also believe that this contest will contribute to raising the understanding of leaders and people about the policies and laws of the Party and State related to the elderly; the role and contributions of the elderly in all aspects of life."
Still difficult in terms of resources
After nearly 2 years of implementation, currently, 21/21 population - family planning centers have been established.mergerto the medical centers of 21 districts, cities and towns and switched to operating as a population department. After the first month of operation, except for some departments such as accounting, staff with medical degrees were transferred to specialized departments.
The rest, basically, the staff of the departments has been stable and remained the same as before the establishment. After the merger, the population departments continue to perform functions such as developing plans to carry out professional and technical tasks on population - family planning and communication and education on population - family planning based on the plan of the Department of Population - Family Planning and the actual situation in the district.
 |
| Activities of Vinh City Population Department after the merger. Photo: My Ha |
At the same time, coordinate the implementation and implementation of professional and technical activities, provide services, guide, inspect and supervise professional activities on population - family planning at commune health stations and village population collaborators; manage the implementation of projects under the target program on population and other projects...
In fact, the implementation of these tasks also means that the Population Departments must simultaneously carry out two directions from the Department of Population - Family Planning and perform local tasks, in which the most important is the implementation of vertical activities and continuing to do a good job of reviewing and collecting statistics on population change rates at the grassroots level as well as campaign and communication activities.
“The operational structure has not changed, but the implementation process has become many times more difficult. Specifically, population activities in cities and towns have long been directly advised by the Center for Population - Family Planning to the People's Committees of districts, cities and towns and directly directed to communes and wards for implementation. Currently, the Population Department can only advise the health center and the implementation only goes down to the health station, so the activities will be very difficult. Meanwhile, to be effective, population work must be coordinated with related departments and sectors, not just the health sector.”
The most difficult issue is the budget issue because after the merger, many funding sources have to depend on the medical center. However, for a long time, the propaganda resources in the units have been very limited. For example, in Thanh Chuong district, the district is currently developing a plan to implement the contest "Elderly people live happily and healthily" and to promote World Contraception Day.
According to Mr. Nguyen Hien Ngoc - Head of Population Department: "Due to lack of funding, activities had to be cut down and not as bustling as previous years".
Or like Con Cuong district, before, each year the district provided about 50 million VND for the population sector to implement activities according to the consanguineous marriage project and through that would organize dozens of communication sessions at the grassroots level. But this year, after the merger policy, the funding source was cut, so the activities were extremely difficult.
 |
| Consulting on contraceptives for people in Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen). Photo: PV |
From this reality, many opinions say that even though the merger has been made, from the Central to the provincial levels, it is necessary to soon issue documents to guide the operating mechanism of the Population Departments.
In addition, it is necessary to restructure some departments to be suitable with the actual operation, for example, population specialists in communes and wards should be assigned to work at the People's Committees of communes and wards instead of health stations to improve the effectiveness of advisory work. It is necessary to continue to maintain the team of village population collaborators because this is an experienced and enthusiastic team.
In the near future, the Department of Health will appoint qualified population officers to take up the position of Deputy Director of the Health Center in charge of population, facilitating population activities at the grassroots level. The Department of Population and Family Planning has also provided guidance and direction on both professional and technical aspects, budget, finance, and allowances for population officers at the district and commune levels. Hopefully, with this start, population activities will become increasingly smooth under the close direction of the health sector and related sectors.
