Primary health care and preventive health workers happily await salary and allowance increases

Recently, the Ministry of Health has submitted to the Government an amendment to Decree No. 56/2011/ND-CP on supporting preferential occupational allowances for employees.medicalprimary health care and preventive medicine to attract medical personnel to work in the fields of preventive medicine and primary health care.

Preventive health workers enter the epidemiological investigation area. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In the draft Decree amending and supplementing Decree No. 56/2011/ND-CP regulating preferential allowances according to occupation for civil servants and public employees working at public health facilities established by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry proposed to increase the allowance to 100% for preventive health workers, commune and ward health workers. (Decree 562011/ND-CP stipulates preferential allowances according to occupation for grassroots health workers, preventive health workers from 40%-70%).

On October 27, in the 4th Session program,National AssemblyIn the 15th session of the National Assembly, the plenary session discussed the socio-economic situation and the state budget. The issue of adjusting preferential allowances for primary health care workers and preventive health workers was raised and received high attention, approval and consensus from the delegates. It is expected that the adjustment to increase the allowances for preventive health workers and primary health workers will be implemented on January 1, 2023.

Receiving information that preferential allowances for primary health care and preventive health workers will soon be increased, officials and employees of Nghe An health sector were very excited and said: This is a correct, timely and appropriate policy.

Doctor Vi Thi Hien, Chau Binh Commune Health Station, Quy Chau District:

During the days of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, with no time to go home, doctor Vi Thi Hien had to bring her young child to the station to make it easier to work. Photo: Thanh Chung

We, the grassroots health workers, are very happy to receive this information. To be honest, the work of grassroots health workers in the past and present is very heavy and difficult. The number of tasks at a health station is similar to the number of tasks at a district or provincial health agency. Health station staff have to do a lot of work from medical examination and treatment, disease prevention, vaccination, school health, food safety, population and family planning, HIV prevention, TB prevention, Methadone distribution, communication, non-communicable disease management, to environmental sanitation... Meanwhile, the number of health station staff is only 4-6 people/station. Each health station staff has to take on many tasks and is more or less overloaded. At the time of the epidemicCovid-19During the outbreak, grassroots medical staff had to work at 200-300% capacity, never resting.

Dr. Chu Trong Trang - Deputy Director of Nghe An Center for Disease Control:

The Ministry of Health's proposal to increase the level of preferential allowances for grassroots medical staff and preventive medicine is very correct, in line with the reality as well as the expectations of many people. It must be said that preventive medicine is a very special field. Under normal conditions, the tasks and efforts of preventive medicine staff are often silently visible and few people can fully appreciate. Only when epidemics or environmental incidents affecting general health occur, do we clearly see the hardships and sacrifices of this team.

For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, preventive medical staff are the frontline in the fight against the pandemic. They have worked day and night, worked hard, and sacrificed to go to the epicenter to directly fight the pandemic. In natural disasters, medical staff are also at the forefront, taking the lead in handling the environment and water resources to prevent and control the pandemic. Raising the level of preferential allowances for grassroots medical staff and preventive medical staff is very reasonable.

Doctor Ho Son - Director of Nam Dan District Medical Center:

At the medical station, there is a shortage of human resources, so medical staff have to do a lot of work. Photo: Thanh Chung

If the amendment to Decree No. 56/2011/ND-CP is passed, the preferential allowance for primary health care workers and preventive health workers will be increased, which will be a timely encouragement for health care workers. Because at this time, the health sector in general and health care units, the economic life of health care workers are facing many difficulties. Especially after the Covid-19 epidemic, many health care workers have had some thoughts, more or less depressed... Raising the allowance will certainly help prevent the wave of health care workers quitting their jobs, shifting from "public" to "private".

However, in the long term, to ensure that medical staff can serve with peace of mind, in addition to policies, the Party and State also need to pay more attention to ensuring human resources for public health units. The current implementation of staff reduction is causing many health stations to lack human resources. Next, there also needs to be additional mechanisms and solutions to protect medical staff.

Dr. Nguyen Van Thuong - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Health:

Raising allowances for grassroots medical staff and preventive medicine is a timely and reasonable encouragement. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Nghe An health sector is very excited about the proposal to increase the preferential allowance for grassroots health workers and preventive health workers. The increase in allowance is very appropriate. Hopefully, in the coming time, the Party and the State will continue to consider and adjust the income for all subjects in the health sector because all subjects working in the health sector are very worthy, because at any time, health workers have been and are working very hard, under stress, and under a lot of pressure. Meanwhile, the income of health workers and the revenue of health units are currently very low.

Hopefully, the State will allow the Ministry of Health to calculate correctly and fully the price of medical services, including the price of medical examination and treatment services covered by health insurance, as a basis to motivate and encourage medical service units to increase the provision of quality services, increase the unit's career revenue, and contribute to increasing the income of medical staff and civil servants. At the same time, consider raising the starting salary of level 2 for newly graduated doctors to attract input sources, and consider the seniority regime of the health sector as in the education sector./.

Thanh Chung