Why did Con Cuong revoke the epidemic prevention allowance for healthcare workers?
After receiving funding to support vaccination efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Con Cuong District Health Center paid hundreds of medical staff. However, more than half of this money was later reclaimed to pay other forces involved in the fight against the pandemic.
On June 11th, Mr. Lo Van Thao, Chairman of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district, announced that he had signed a decision to establish a team to inspect compliance with legal regulations in the management and use of state budget funds allocated for COVID-19 prevention and control during the 2020-2023 period at the Con Cuong District Health Center.
This move comes after some healthcare workers expressed dissatisfaction with the Con Cuong District Health Center for paying them COVID-19 prevention and control support funds but then later reclaiming a portion of it.
A healthcare worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said that during the first payment at the beginning of 2022, she received nearly 5 million VND, but was later asked to return more than 2 million VND.
"We are very concerned, not knowing what the money is being reclaimed for," said this female healthcare worker. Similarly, more than 130 healthcare workers currently working at the Con Cuong District Health Center and health stations who participated in the fight against the epidemic also had nearly half of the money they received in the first phase reclaimed.
By the end of 2022, the Con Cuong District Health Center continued to disburse the second installment of the special allowance for administering Covid-19 vaccines. However, shortly afterward, the center reclaimed a portion of the total amount already disbursed. This left many healthcare workers puzzled.
Speaking with a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper, Ms. Vi Thi Huong, Director of the Con Cuong District Health Center, said that this is an allowance for healthcare workers who directly administer Covid-19 vaccines in the free vaccination program at public health facilities.
In the first phase, payments will be made according to the regulations in Government Resolution No. 58/NQ-CP dated June 8, 2021. Specifically, the allowance is 7,500 VND per injection dose.
“After receiving instructions, the District Health Center submitted a proposal to the District People's Committee, and in February 2022, the district allocated over 590 million VND for the first phase. However, after receiving the money and verifying the working days, there was an overlap with other epidemic control activities such as sample collection and Covid-19 investigation, resulting in a surplus of 50 million VND. We returned this surplus to the budget, leaving only over 540 million VND to pay for more than 130 medical staff at the center and commune health stations,” Ms. Huong said.
According to Ms. Huong, after the payments were made, there were many suggestions that the vaccination work also involved the contributions of many other forces. Therefore, the Con Cuong District Health Center decided to recover 300 million VND out of the total of over 540 million VND in allowances paid to medical staff to share with these individuals.
“To complete the vaccination campaign, we also relied on the efforts of the police force to maintain order, as well as population collaborators and those who guided the people… But according to the payment guidelines, these people are not eligible for allowances; only those in the vaccination team are. During this urgent epidemic prevention period, we had to mobilize all forces to support the effort, sometimes working all night, which was very hard. But when the allowances were supposed to be paid, they weren't, and we felt uneasy about that,” Ms. Huong added.
At the end of 2022, Con Cuong District Health Center received over 1 billion VND to pay the second round of allowances. After fully paying over 130 medical staff, Con Cuong District Health Center recovered over 300 million VND from this amount to distribute to other personnel not eligible for the allowance.
However, this time, before payments could be made to other personnel, there was a reaction from the medical staff. After receiving feedback from medical staff expressing their disagreement, the District Health Center returned the recovered funds from both the first and second installments to the budget.
“To date, we have returned over 600 million VND to the budget. The recovery of allowances from medical staff does not affect their rights. They are entitled to allowances based on the amount of work they perform. The over 600 million VND was due to duplicate attendance tracking leading to overpayments and to support medical staff and other personnel involved in COVID-19 vaccination but who were not eligible for the allowance. However, upon realizing the payment was to the wrong recipients, we recovered the money and returned it to the budget,” said Ms. Vi Thi Huong.
The Director of the Con Cuong District Health Center also admitted to making mistakes in the payment of allowances for COVID-19 vaccinations, but she said that there was no personal gain involved.
"This stemmed from the reality that other forces were also working hard in the fight against the pandemic, so we wanted to share the burden with them. We had no personal gain whatsoever. But later, realizing our mistake, we returned the money to the state budget," Ms. Huong added.
