Sports Medicine: Many shortcomings

(Baonghean) -Nowadays, with the development of sports, athletes often have to practice and compete at high intensity, so they have to face risks such as injuries or other long-term health consequences, leading to achievements and even their careers being affected. Therefore, the issue of health care for athletes plays a very important role. However, like in many other localities, sports medicine in Nghe An currently has many shortcomings.

SLNA Club medical staff take care of injured young player.

Regarding injuries in the Nghe An sports community, the most famous is probably the case of player Nguyen Cong Minh. As a central midfielder with excellent skills for SLNA Club, Cong Minh was called up to the national team to compete in the 25th SEA Games in 2009. In the opening match of the group stage, Cong Minh only played one half before being substituted due to a knee injury. This midfielder was later diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament and faced the risk of retiring from the field. Thanks to the support of SLNA Club, in June 2010, in Ho Chi Minh City, this midfielder had a successful cruciate ligament replacement surgery by a group of American doctors. After that, Cong Minh continued his playing career for a club in Hanoi, but his performance was no longer the same as before. From Cong Minh's story, urgent problems in sports medicine have been exposed, from initial care to injury diagnosis and treatment.

In addition to the case of Nguyen Cong Minh, up to now, there have been many cases of athletes who have contributed to Nghe An sports suffering serious injuries, at risk of retiring from their sports careers. Fortunately, many of them have returned to competition thanks to timely and proper treatment, such as Le Cong Vinh, Nguyen Minh Duc, Nguyen Trong Hoang, Nguyen Hong Tien in football or recently Nguyen Thi Hoa (soccer), Nguyen Thi Duong (taekwondo), Doan Xuan Luyen (wrestling)... In reality, the strict requirements of high-performance sports often force athletes to practice and compete with great intensity, sometimes beyond their capacity. Unfortunately, in today's sports, medical care for athletes is often only mentioned after an incident has occurred and has not been carried out systematically, from initial care such as nutrition, training regimen to treatment and recovery care. Athlete Mai Sy Viet (track and field) said: "The health issues of our track and field team members are currently mostly handled by the coach, and only when entering tournaments do we have a health check to see if we are qualified to compete or not?"

It is known that in the current sports medicine work, our province has only one doctor, Dr. Ho Viet Tran - currently the Head of Administration of the Sports Training and Coaching Center. With more than 30 years of working in athlete health care, including more than 10 years working at SLNA Club, Dr. Tran said: "It must be affirmed that sports medicine has a great influence on the performance of athletes, because it is closely related to the physical strength and performance of athletes. In countries with developed sports, sports doctors play a very important role. In each team or sports training facility, doctors must understand the muscular system and health, endurance, exercise habits, eating habits, and psychological state of each athlete to approach and take care of the health and spirit of the athletes.

Not only that, before each match, the doctors also impart to the athletes the necessary sports principles (energy consumption, accumulation, production, etc.), especially experiences and secrets about physical fitness during the competition. Therefore, there is a separate major in sports. However, in Vietnam, as far as I know, currently, the whole country only has more than a dozen people who have received specialized training in sports medicine. At the Nghe An Sports Training and Coaching Center, although managing approximately 300 athletes, the athlete health care department, in addition to me as a doctor, only has 1 additional caregiver with intermediate nursing qualifications and no one has received specialized training in Sports Medicine.

In addition, funding and attention to sports medicine are currently limited. When provincial teams compete for long periods in national championships, it is very important to have a medical team to monitor nutrition and promptly handle health and fitness issues during training and competition. However, due to financial constraints and pressure on performance, teams often prioritize athletes and coaches, while caregivers have to stay at home, so injuries to athletes, if they occur, will not be detected and treated promptly, which can lead to unfortunate consequences.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - General Director of SLNA Football Joint Stock Company expressed: “We must frankly admit that, nationwide, in all sports, sports medicine work is still not taken seriously, leading to a lack and weakness of doctors with expertise in sports medicine. The club's medical staff currently has 2 people, but neither of them has a medical degree, so the diagnosis and initial first aid for players injured during training as well as handling issues related to the players' daily health are still limited. In fact, there have been many cases of injuries that did not leave sequelae or permanent disabilities for the players, but due to incorrect first aid, a mild illness turned into a serious one. To overcome this, in recent years, we have contacted many hospitals in the province to recruit a doctor to work at the club, but no doctor wants to leave.”

Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Nhu Tam - Director of the Provincial Sports Training Center said: "Currently, due to limited funding for the activities of the teams, the medical care for athletes is still urgent. With the current training intensity of athletes, we hope to establish a department or at least a sports medicine team (under the administrative department) so that the health care of athletes can be improved and become more professional."

In order to improve health care for athletes and contribute to the development of high-performance sports, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism needs to have a policy on establishing sports medicine departments and teams at sports training facilities, and at the same time have a mechanism to attract doctors to work in sports medicine, improve the professional qualifications of the existing medical staff, and improve the treatment regime so that they can wholeheartedly devote themselves to their work. Only then will athletes feel more secure if they are injured during competition.

Minh Quan