Since giving birth, the female doctor has reluctantly become a "part-time businessman" to both pursue her passion for medical practice and earn money for living when the salary at the hospital cannot afford more money.
End of the working day at 19:3 after a 27-hour surgery for a patient with a torn ear due to an accident, Ha Ngan (character name has been changed), XNUMX years old, a young doctor at a hospital The province hastily returned home to deliver goods to customers.
The item was delivered to a regular customer with an apology for the emergency surgery, causing the delivery schedule to be delayed.
Since getting married and having children, Ngan reluctantly has to become a "part-time businessman" to both continue pursuing her passion for medical practice and earn a living when the salary is at the hospital, according to the report. She described, unable to afford more money for diapers.
After 6 years in the university lecture hall, 12 months of rotation, 6 months of orientation and 3 months of ear, nose and throat endoscopy, Ngan is eligible to work at the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat of the hospital. province, with a practice certificate of general medical examination and treatment.
Ngan's duties at the department are to alternately work at the Ear - Nose - Throat clinic and the inpatient treatment area.
“As a rule, our morning shift starts from 7am to 11am; Afternoon shift from 13:30 to 16:30. However, in reality, almost every day, my colleagues and I end the morning shift at 12 o'clock and the afternoon shift at 18-19 o'clock. On the days when there is an emergency surgery, it is normal to go home when it is dark," Ngan said.
In addition, every 6-7 days, this young female doctor is on duty 24 hours a day.
Although the work pressure is heavy, Ngan's salary is currently less than 6 million VND.
“My salary consists of: base salary with a coefficient of 2,34; 1,49 million dong allowance according to the policy of attracting human resources; allowance equivalent to 40% of basic salary. Total about 5,7 million.
In addition, we have additional costs when performing procedures. However, a month of working a lot only adds about 500.000 VND", Ngan said.
Self-assessed objectively, Ngan said, the salary of a young doctor like her is relatively low compared to the effort put in, as well as the common ground of other professions.
“Many of my friends who studied economics and engineering only took about 4-5 years to graduate and work. Up to now, my peers have had 4-5 years of work with 2-3 times my current salary for office work 8 hours/day," Ngan confided.
Comparing only in the medical industry, according to Ngan, the remuneration for doctors in public hospitals is also "very low" compared to private medical facilities.
Ngan pointed out: "I have not had the conditions to study specialty I to get a professional practice certificate, so in surgeries, I can only take the position of assistant surgery. Each surgery lasts 1,5 - 2 hours, I get paid 30.000 - 50.000 VND.
Sewing a torn ear of the patient took 3 hours, we were paid 30.000 VND. The 3-hour major surgery is only 90.000 VND maximum. That is the cost for sub-position 1, for those in sub-position 2, this will be completely absent.
If studying to a specialist doctor I can do the main surgery, the payment will only increase by 30-40%. For example, for an emergency surgery of Ear - Nose - Throat, the doctor will only be paid about 130.000 - 140.000 VND more.
Meanwhile, in the same position, many private hospitals can pay doctors several million dong for an operation."
Low salary, for Ngan, is not a big deal. According to this girl, the main driving force behind the profession is passion and the busy medical profession does not have too much time to spend money.
But this is only true until she gets married.
“The income around 6 million VND helps me to live when I am single and think that I can continue to pursue my passion for a long time. But getting married and having children makes me disillusioned," Ngan sighed, continuing: "Family life incurs a series of costs that I could not have imagined. Meanwhile, my husband is also a young doctor with not much better income."
The salary is not enough to live, this young doctor's family is forced to manage enough side jobs to earn extra income.
From "bookworms", we reluctantly groped step by step to learn how to sell online, from how to source goods, to post ads, to how to take care of customers... These are all like a "world" new world” for us.
"When you open your eyes, you can see working" is how Ngan describes her current situation of doing two jobs.
“At 6 a.m., the first thing I do after waking up is to spend 15 minutes posting sales, then have breakfast and go to work. At noon, I take advantage of the break to check customer messages, make orders; In the afternoon, take advantage of the time to ship orders nearby to save costs and create relationships with customers.
In the evening, when the children went to bed, the couple packed up the goods and responded to messages from customers. Everything usually ends after 2pm," Ngan described.
Although trained in a medical environment, she is used to high-intensity work, but Ngan admits that the current pressure of "inner leg, outer leg" makes her overloaded.
“Using the device a lot, my eyes have been getting worse lately. Knowing is harmful health but had to try. My husband is currently away from home studying major I for 2 years.
Every month, in addition to the long-term expenses, it is necessary to add 2 million dong to her husband's living expenses and more than 4 million dong to repay the debt", Ngan confided, emphasizing that the total income from the medical profession is only about 10 million dong of the couple is of course not enough.
Similar to Ngan's story, Hoang (character's name has been changed), a young doctor working at the Department of Dental - Jaw - Facial of a provincial hospital said, right after graduating from school, he was crushed. burdened by economic pressures.
“I got married early because my parents are old, my wife's job is not stable, so my extra salary of around 6 million VND is definitely not enough to support my family. Calculating through the amount of milk diapers for children every month has expired 2 million.
There is also a loan from my parents to study medicine, when medical school fees skyrocketed due to the application of autonomy regulations", Hoang confided, adding that the recent "hurricane" situation has put pressure on me. The economic burden on the family becomes heavier.
Outside of office hours, Hoang works a variety of jobs, from going to the doctor on a "order" of the local clinics to selling goods online. On average, he works no less than 15 hours a day, not counting the time to study and research.
However, according to this young doctor, this is just a measure of "fire fighting" and it greatly affects his study and career improvement.
Recently, Hoang received an offer to work at a private hospital in the area with a salary higher than the current total income.
However, as Hoang describes, he is in a situation of "dilemma".
“Despite low income, public hospital is still the best environment for professional improvement, when being exposed to many patients and many difficult and serious diseases. This is a very important factor for medical professionals.
Meanwhile, going to a private hospital with a higher income will make life "easier" than it is now. However, I am still worried that my skills will go sideways", Hoang sighed, continuing: "This is also the reason why when I graduated, I chose a public hospital to work even though there were job opportunities with others. Attractive salary from private medical facility.
However, facing the pressure of rice and money, recently my orientation has been shaken."
This young doctor also said that many of his colleagues also received offers with attractive salaries from private medical facilities. Many people choose to go to a new stop. For young doctors with no economic conditions like Hoang, who decided to stay at the public hospital, it was almost mandatory to have a side job to cover the immediate life.
After 7 years of working, Thanh (character name has been changed), a doctor at a central hospital has an income of about 10 million VND, an increase of about 1 million VND compared to the first year of work.
The income level is not that high, especially where the cost of living is expensive like in Hanoi. However, Thanh thinks that he is still "enough to live" with a salary and is not under too much economic pressure, so he can focus on his career.
“The specificity of the medical profession” is one of the factors that, as described by Thanh, help him live well with this salary.
“It is quite fortunate for people who work in medicine that when their income is low, they have to spend less money. Our specialty is eating and sleeping at the hospital. When I go home, I also focus on studying and reviewing to get a higher education, so I don't often have to spend money," Thanh said.
Thanh describes pursuing a career in medicine as being like growing perennials. Determining that the first 5-10 years when entering the profession will be hard and economically almost "0", when the income is only enough for basic living as well as reinvesting in learning.
“But when they have skills, experience as well as affirm their name, economic issues will no longer be a burden, when in addition to their main work, skilled doctors have many options to practice after hours. with relatively high remuneration", Thanh analyzed.
However, this young doctor also admits that the salary of a doctor who has only worked for a few years can hardly ensure a stable and balanced life, but must accept a trade-off.
“In the first years of my career, I was not married, so I did not have to face much economic pressure, so I could focus on professional development. The salary is enough to live but not enough for a full and balanced life.
In the new years of graduating from school, I did not attend a class meeting when I had almost zero in my hand.
While at that time, friends were relatively stable in their careers, business people even bought cars," Thanh shared.
With the salary paid by the hospital, according to Thanh, he can only support himself. If you are the breadwinner of the family, it is very difficult to secure a living, especially the cost of raising children and sending them to school.
In addition, buying a home is also a distant goal with low wages and for many years only a slight increase. In the case of having to rent a house, that costs a relative amount of money.
According to Thanh, he is lucky to have a part-time job associated with professional work. This helps this young doctor to solve the problem at the same time: have more income and improve his skills.
“The development of technology also opens up many opportunities for young doctors like us to pursue their passions, as well as solve economic problems. I am currently participating in an online medical examination network. Every week, examining and monitoring for 5-7 patients also helps to earn an extra income to cover life," Thanh shared.
In July 7, the Vietnam Health Trade Union sent a report to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor on the situation of medical staff leaving work and the shortage of drugs and supplies. In which, there are 2022 reasons leading to more than 8 health workers resigning or quitting from the beginning of 9.000 to the first 2021 months of 6.
In the report, low income is one of the main reasons why many medical workers leave their jobs. Accordingly, salaries and allowances for medical staff in the public system are low, especially at preventive and grassroots medical facilities.
The reason is that the main source of operating funding is guaranteed by the state budget and low non-business revenue.
According to the current regulations on salary and allowance regime, (with a base salary of VND 1.490.000), a doctor after 6 years of study and 18 months of practice to be granted a practicing certificate, if recruited If used in public non-business units, the salary is 2,34 x 1.490.000 VND = 3.486.000 VND.
With a vocational incentive allowance of 40%, the income level is 4.881.240 VND (excluding payment of social insurance and health insurance).
This salary only guarantees part of the needs of life. Therefore, it is very difficult for public health facilities to retain health workers, while the income level at non-public medical facilities is 3 to 4 times higher, even higher in some places. 5 to 6 times the income of medical staff in a public health facility.
Content: Minh Nhat
Design: Thủy Tiên
Dantri.com.vn
