In recent years, in Thuan commune, Huong Hoa district, the number of malaria cases has gradually decreased, and by 2024, there will be no more malaria cases. However, in his role as a village health worker, Mr. Ho Van Hon (born in 1983) never neglects his propaganda duties.
These past few days, he has been taking advantage of the night to go to each house to check on the malaria prevention of the villagers. He chose the time to check at night, by making surprise visits to families to see if the villagers comply with the practice of sleeping under mosquito nets. Although he has only attended a short-term village health training course, Mr. Hon has skillfully handled many situations such as stopping bleeding, delivering babies, detecting early signs of malaria or diphtheria... Although he is a man, Mr. Hon is not afraid to promote family planning and care for pregnant mothers.
Mr. Ho Van Hon discusses work with staff of Thuan Commune Health Station - Photo: HN
The job of a village health worker has been with him for more than 20 years. In his memory, the life of the villagers was very difficult in the past, so their awareness was backward. Whenever they got sick, they just called a priest to pray.
The same thing happened in his family. When he started working as a village health worker, the first thing he had to do was convince his family members to change their mindset. “It was a process because my parents did not accept it. They said that whatever was part of the village’s habits had to be maintained. But when I gave examples of pregnant mothers who had complications giving birth at home, while my wife gave birth to a healthy baby because she was cared for at the health station, my parents finally listened and gradually changed their views,” he shared.
The joy of Mr. Hon and many other village health workers in Thuan commune is that their villagers are getting better health care. Therefore, despite the difficulties, they are still dedicated to their work.
For Ms. Nguyen Thi Tinh (born in 1974) in Hien Thanh commune, Vinh Linh district, this job has been with her since 2007. In 2016, Ms. Tinh attended a 9-month basic training course to consolidate her knowledge and improve her skills. According to Ms. Tinh, the work of a village health worker is the same everywhere, the nature of the work is not complicated but very necessary.
This team has helped effectively implement population health target programs such as disease prevention, malaria, non-communicable diseases, child malnutrition, expanded immunization, population work, family planning, etc.
Talking about the difficulties, Ms. Tinh shared: “There is a lot of work, so in addition to farming, we have to arrange our time reasonably to complete the task. Because we are not equipped with medical equipment, we have difficulty in providing first aid locally. Therefore, I hope the health sector will pay attention to providing some necessary tools for village medical staff to provide first aid in emergency cases before transferring to the station.”
The difficulties that Ms. Tinh mentioned are just a small part of the difficulties that village health workers have to face. Although they are not doctors or specialized medical staff, the village health workers are trained in first aid, disease prevention, guiding people to the right medical examination and treatment, and implementing community health programs such as expanded immunization, maternal and child health care, malaria prevention, malnutrition, etc.
In villages dozens of kilometers away from the commune health center, where roads are difficult to travel, the role of village health workers becomes even more essential. They are the ones who go to each house to promote vaccination, help mothers give birth safely in emergency situations, and detect early signs of dangerous epidemics. Thanks to that, many national health programs have been effectively implemented, vaccination rates have been high, the number of maternal and child deaths has decreased significantly, and people's awareness of health care has been significantly improved.
Despite undertaking many primary health care tasks for local people, the allowance for village health workers is very low.
According to Decision No. 75/2009/QD-TTg dated May 11, 2009 of the Prime Minister on the regulation of allowances for village and hamlet health workers (Decision 75), monthly allowances for village and hamlet health workers are paid at levels of 0.5 and 0.3 compared to the common basic salary applied to health workers in disadvantaged communes and the remaining delta communes. This is the reason why in recent years, trained village and hamlet health workers have resigned, affecting the work of community health care at the grassroots level.
Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Health recently sought comments on a draft Government Decree stipulating a number of special allowances for civil servants, public employees, and workers in public health facilities, anti-epidemic allowances; support for village and residential group health workers and village and hamlet midwives. Accordingly, for village and residential group health workers and village and hamlet midwives, the Ministry of Health proposed a monthly support level of 0.7 and 0.5 compared to the basic salary.
In reality, appropriate adjustments are needed to ensure fairness and rationality in the operation of the village and neighborhood health network or to allow provinces and cities to issue separate mechanisms and resolutions to pay for medical staff in residential groups in wards and towns under their management.
Another problem is that there is still a large number of untrained village health workers or those whose training does not meet professional requirements. Meanwhile, Circular 27/2023/TT-BYT dated December 29, 2023 of the Ministry of Health stipulates that village health workers and village midwives must have a medical qualification (doctor, physician, nurse, midwife) from intermediate level or higher (the old regulation was from elementary level or higher). Thus, the number of untrained people will not meet the standards under the new regulations, while the implementation of training village health workers faces many difficulties due to lack of training funding and no policy mechanism to spend on training village health workers.
In the context of epidemics, climate change and spontaneous migration with the potential risk of new epidemics, strengthening the grassroots health network, including the village health force, needs more attention. Maintaining the network of village health workers is extremely necessary, but to do this, fundamental adjustments are needed to solve the root of the problem. Among them, it is necessary to adjust to increase the monthly allowance for village health workers, ensuring the stability of the village health staff and in accordance with the current practical situation of living costs.
At the same time, pay attention to allocating funds, supporting new training and continuous training to promptly meet the needs of units with human resources to replace and supplement, as well as create conditions for village health workers to study to improve their professional qualifications, update new knowledge and learn from experience to contribute to better serving the primary health care work for the people.
Anh Thu
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/nhung-cong-hien-tham-lang-cua-y-te-thon-ban-194691.htm
Comment (0)