Nghe An brings population services to remote areas

Promoting communication activities and bringing services to the grassroots are the efforts of the Population sector after a period of interruption due to the Covid-19 epidemic. This is also a practical activity to prepare for the month of launching the integrated communication campaign to provide reproductive health care/family planning services, improving population quality in 2022.

Come to workers

The "Reproductive Health" program is coordinated by the Department of Population - Family Planning with other units to be deployed on the occasion of Workers' Month 2022 with the main support objects beingWorkerand workers working in factories and industrial parks. In the districtTan KyThe program was carried out at Van Minh Garment Factory branch with the participation of nearly 400 female workers and laborers.

This is also the first time peoplelaborAt this unit, doctors and medical staff come directly to examine, treat and provide free medicine. Sharing about this, Ms. Phan Thi Thuan in the service team said: “I am 43 years old this year and rarely go for health check-ups at medical facilities, especially reproductive health check-ups. Therefore, when we heard that the Population Department would come to support the company's workers to check their health, we were very happy. This is the first time I have been able to comprehensively monitor my reproductive health and this is very necessary, especially for people of our age.”

Counseling on reproductive health for workers in Tan Ky district. Photo: MH

Compared to other programs, the implementation of reproductive health care programs for workers and laborers working in factories, enterprises and industrial zones has its own characteristics. This is a group that needs care, but for many different reasons, they do not have the awareness to care and protect. In fact, in the past, in addition to going to work at the company, female workers had little access to information sources related to reproductive health, leading to limited knowledge about contraceptive methods, high rates of unwanted pregnancies, and lack of understanding of their rights during pregnancy and childbirth.

Ms. Le Thi Dung - President of the Trade Union of Van Minh Tan Ky Garment Factory shared: “Over the years, the company's trade union has also made efforts to mobilize resources to take good care of the material and spiritual life of union members, workers and laborers. However, taking care of reproductive health for workers in the industry still faces difficulties and limitations due to many objective and subjective reasons. Many workers also believe that reproductive health is a rather sensitive topic. Therefore, due to fear and shame, workers often do not proactively go to medical organizations and clubs to be examined and provided with information about this field.”

“For a long time, health check-ups for workers in enterprises have only focused on basic issues such as blood pressure, cardiovascular, ear - nose - throat, eyes, gynecological examinations for female workers with families... In-depth examinations, cancer screening and diseases related to reproductive health have not received much attention.

In addition, the nature of labor in industrial zones is often production lines, product contracts, so working hours are quite tight, workers have difficulty in taking time to go to the doctor and get treatment for fear of affecting work productivity. This is the reason why workers always delay seeking reproductive health care/family planning services, only when their health condition makes them unable to work anymore, then they seek medical services.

Through a field survey, Ms. Thai Thi Tuyet - Head of DepartmentPopulation - Family Planning(Department of Population and Family Planning of the province) said

Female factory workers need to be concerned about reproductive health. Photo: MH

To support workers and employees, the "Reproductive Health" Program chaired by the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning has many contents. In addition to examination, service implementation and drug distribution, workers are also consulted, supported and have their questions answered related to this issue. This activity has also been maintained by the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning for many years with the desire to bring the service directly to female workers of childbearing age, to equip and provide them with awareness of reproductive health and to conduct visits, examinations and drug distribution support. Through this activity, it is also aimed at mobilizing employers to create conditions for female workers to learn about reproductive health/family planning, diversifying propaganda activities so that workers understand their rights and voluntarily participate.

This year, according to plan, about 3,000 female workers will be supported by the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning with a budget of up to hundreds of millions of VND, concentrated in 3 districts: Tan Ky, Dien Chau and Yen Thanh.

Filling the "gap" at the grassroots level

The activities of bringing reproductive health care/family planning services to the grassroots level have been implemented synchronously by the population sector for many years now, focusing mainly on workers, laborers, ethnic minorities, special areas or areas with high birth rates. These are also the groups that are not often cared for in terms of reproductive health and in the long run will affect their health and many other chronic diseases.

Ms. Tran Thi V in Khanh Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) has just completed surgery at Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital with a rather sad result when the tumor in her uterus has metastasized to many other organs. Previously, when the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning implemented a program of examination and consultation on reproductive health in the locality, she underwent an endoscopy to conduct cancer screening. After examination, the doctor said that she had a tumor and asked her to go to a higher level of examination to determine the exact disease. This patient also said: Due to difficult conditions and subjectivity, for many years she had not had a reproductive health examination and had not detected any abnormalities.

People of Anh Son district learn about population policy. Photo: MH.

This is also the first year that the reproductive health examination program has reached high schools and some vocational schools in some mountainous districts. At a high school in Con Cuong district, through ultrasound, doctors and nurses discovered at least two cases of female students being pregnant, even one case was more than 5 months pregnant but the student still did not know. Doctor Thai Thi Sam, who has participated in many programs, added: "Usually the places the program goes to are remote, isolated, and disadvantaged areas, so for a long time, attention to reproductive health care has not been focused on and many people have never had a reproductive health examination. Therefore, even after only an initial examination, the number of people suffering from infectious diseases and diseases related to reproductive health is very high. This is a huge gap at the grassroots level and needs to be regularly promoted and supported."

In recent years, to improve the quality of services, many techniques such as endoscopy and cancer screening have also been deployed by the program to the grassroots level with a team of experienced doctors and nurses from many major hospitals in the province. Through this, it has also been discovered that the rate of patients with incurable and dangerous diseases is quite high. Doctor Thai Thi Sam also added: "At the medical facility I am working at, for every 100 patients, about 30 patients have abnormal cells and about 10 - 15 patients have cancer cells. Among them, there are people who do not have any abnormal signs. This also shows that if we examine on a large scale, many people will be detected early so that they can have timely and active treatment plans."

Health check-up for students in Thai Hoa town. Photo: MH

In 2022, this is also the goal that the Population sector is aiming for in order to expand the target audience. BSCKII Nguyen Ba Tan - Head of the Provincial Department of Population - Family Planning also said: "This year we will diversify the types and communication products on population and development, ensure quality, innovate in content and communication forms, focus on mass media channels; communication products suitable for each locality. In addition, apply appropriate forms of providing reproductive health care/family planning services to remote, isolated, disadvantaged areas, densely populated areas with high birth rates, coastal areas, industrial zones and difficult-to-reach subjects".