For a long time, doctors, nurses, and health workers have been waiting for a decision to change the allowances for on-duty, surgical, and epidemic prevention. "Only with food can one practice morality", a commensurate income will create motivation to devote oneself wholeheartedly to saving people, creating and inventing medicine...
After the Health and Life Newspaper published a series of articles "Medical allowance unchanged for 13 years" , the editorial office has received many phone calls and emails sharing and sympathizing with the legitimate aspirations of doctors, nurses, and workers across the country. Not only in the public health system, but also many colleagues in the private health sector, experts, policy makers... all support the proposal of the Ministry of Health to draft a draft on increasing special allowances for civil servants, public employees, and workers in public health facilities and the anti-epidemic allowance regime.
Many central and local press agencies, as well as reputable social media accounts, also expressed their views on the need for a breakthrough change after 13 years of many salary increases, but the on-call and surgical allowances of doctors and nurses are still at the lowest level. "ten thousand" (!).
These regulations are so low and out of step with current prices that they surprise even the beneficiaries of public health services.
Near midnight in mid-October at the A9 Emergency Center of Bach Mai Hospital, Ms. Nguyen had been taking care of her husband for 2 weeks here. This is the last line of the last line. It is the most special of the special. Her husband's illness was serious, but "going to Bach Mai" was already a great mental reassurance for them. She was sure that there was no better place. Because Ms. Nguyen had witnessed and was stunned by the work cycle of the doctors and medical staff of Bach Mai.
The first day her husband was at the Emergency Center, she felt dizzy. Patients were coming in one after another, from the elderly, children, young people who had traffic accidents… Medical staff were running back and forth from room to room, examining, consulting, asking about medical history, giving injections, giving medicine… All kinds of sounds were going around. Some were crying out in pain, others were rushing. There was no peace all night. Doctors and nurses had a hard time sitting down, let alone trying to catch some sleep.
Doctors and nurses work in emergency at Bach Mai Hospital.
"The journalist's information is correct," Ms. Nguyen was surprised when we interviewed her and conveniently shared that the people who are on duty to treat her receive a nightly allowance of 115,000 VND. This is Bach Mai, a special class, while doctors and nurses at the district and commune levels are much lower.
"As a citizen, I completely agree with increasing the on-call allowance for doctors and nurses, because they work too hard," Ms. Nguyen said briefly, although she could not remember all the numbers, but the allowance levels were different. But after being here for 2 weeks, this woman understood whether 15,000 VND for meals per 24/7 shift was high or low, she knew whether a special surgery where she stood still for 8 to 12 hours and received the highest amount of 280,000 VND was worth it or not...
Since 2022, in a speech at the conference of hospital directors' clubs in the Northern provinces, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan shared that although the training time for doctors and nurses is longer than other professions, not to mention the time for intensive training, practice afterwards, and continuous learning, the benefits and salaries are not much. In fact, it is currently very difficult to attract students to the nursing profession, and students who graduate from school have low salaries and high pressure.
"In addition, the current low salary and allowance regime for medical staff was established many years ago and is no longer suitable," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan talks with medical staff on duty at the landslide site affected by storm No. 3 in Yen Bai .
Speaking at the discussion session of the Group on assessing the socio-economic situation at the ongoing National Assembly session, National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Tri Thuc - Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, Deputy Minister of Health said that allowances for medical staff are still implemented according to Decision 73 since 2011, which has been 13 years so it is very outdated.
National Assembly Delegate - Deputy Minister Nguyen Tri Thuc cited the regulations in Decision 73, the 24/24 hour allowance is 115,000 VND/person, meal allowance is 15,000 VND/person for grade I and special grade hospitals.
"Kidney transplants or heart surgeries require very high techniques. The main surgeon and the main anesthesiologist are compensated 280,000 VND; 2 assistant surgeons and anesthesiologists 200,000 VND; and the assisting nurse 120,000 VND" - National Assembly Delegate - Deputy Minister Nguyen Tri Thuc cited.
National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Tri Thuc - Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, Deputy Minister of Health spoke at the socio-economic discussion session.
National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga - Hai Duong Province National Assembly Delegation said she received many complaints from medical staff that the allowance was too little, while the work was too hard, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further analyzing the opinion of agreeing to increase the regular allowance and the anti-epidemic allowance, Ms. Viet Nga said: "No one is sure whether in the future there will be an epidemic similar to COVID-19, or even more catastrophic. When an epidemic occurs, the responsibility of medical staff, including grassroots staff, is very heavy because they are the primary health care team, the on-site team and the first to participate in fighting the epidemic..."
Sharing more, delegate Viet Nga worried that after the COVID-19 pandemic, many grassroots medical staff quit their jobs and changed jobs. The reason is partly due to inappropriate treatment, not commensurate with their efforts!
National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga - National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong province.
Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Thuy - Vice President of the Vietnam Medical Trade Union shared that the medical profession is identified as "a special profession that needs to be selected, trained, used and treated specially". Decision 73 was issued in 2011, after 13 years of implementation, while the basic salary has been adjusted 8 times from 830,000 VND to 2,340,000 VND now, an increase of 182% compared to 2011, but the health sector allowance has not been adjusted accordingly, moreover, the current allowance regulations are too low and no longer suitable for the consumer price index with the current economic situation and life.
This situation greatly affects the salaries and incomes of medical staff, not commensurate with the contributions, sacrifices and hardships of medical staff in protecting and taking care of people's health.
Understanding the hardships of hundreds of thousands of medical staff and workers in the medical sector and listening to the opinions and recommendations of voters, the Ministry of Health has asked for the consent of competent authorities and the Ministry has developed a draft Decision of the Prime Minister stipulating a number of special allowance regimes for civil servants, public employees, and workers in public medical facilities and the anti-epidemic allowance regime.
October 8, The Ministry of Health has published this draft. to collect opinions from the people and related units, expected to be submitted to the Government next November. This draft has many adjustments to increase the allowances for on-duty, surgery and epidemic prevention...
Doctors at Viet Duc Hospital perform liver transplant for patient.
Accordingly, the proposal to increase the 24/24h duty fee to 325,000 VND for grade I and special grade hospitals; 255,000 VND for grade II hospitals. The remaining hospitals will increase it to 185,000 VND. Commune health stations will triple the fee to 75,000 VND. Meal allowance will be adjusted to 45,000 VND/person/shift.
The surgical and procedural allowances have also increased. Specifically, the main surgeon's salary for special surgeries has tripled to VND790,000. For type I, type II, and type III surgeries, the increase for the main surgeon is VND230,000, VND120,000, and VND95,000, respectively, compared to the old one.
The draft also classifies the 5 groups of medical staff in a surgery according to current regulations into 3 groups, for example, the surgical assistant from the group with an allowance of 200,000 VND is moved up to group 2 with a proposed level of 565,000 VND, and the person directly assisting the surgery from group 5 to group 3 with an allowance of 120,000 VND is proposed to receive 340,000 VND (for special-class hospitals).
National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga expressed her agreement that the Ministry of Health has developed and expected the Government to issue the latest decision next month stipulating a number of special allowance regimes for civil servants, public employees, and workers in public health facilities and the anti-epidemic allowance regime amending Decision No. 73/2011.
Considering increasing the regular regime and anti-epidemic regime for medical staff is completely reasonable and a completely correct decision.
National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet NgaNational Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga emphasized: How much and how much to increase must be based on reality and need to have a multi-dimensional impact assessment.
"We must increase it in a harmonious way to both retain and motivate medical staff to work with peace of mind and to take into account the response of state resources. One of the bases for adjusting allowances for medical staff is the current basic salary of 2,340,000 VND/month" - Delegate Viet Nga expressed.
National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Cong Hoang - National Assembly Delegation of Thai Nguyen province said that he personally agreed and supported the increase in the regular regime and anti-epidemic regime for medical staff and employees at public facilities. This is a very reasonable and timely concern of the health sector, especially the leaders of the Ministry of Health.
National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Cong Hoang - National Assembly Delegation of Thai Nguyen province.
However, delegate Nguyen Cong Hoang acknowledged that the reason why medical staff quit or change jobs is only partly due to salary and allowances, but the underlying cause is also due to the working environment - which is the deciding factor. Therefore, the delegate hopes to soon develop a law for cadres, employees and workers in the medical sector, similar to the Law on Teachers that the Ministry of Education and Training is about to submit to the National Assembly because education and health are two sectors with extremely specific and special roles.
National Assembly Deputy Tran Hoang Ngan - Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation said that the Government proposed not to increase public sector salaries and pensions, preferential allowances for meritorious people in 2025. He said "only partially supports", because according to the delegate, attention should be paid to salaries in the special education sector in remote areas and salaries and allowances of medical staff.
"I find the "price" of surgeries too low. But more importantly, the pension is very low," said Mr. Tran Hoang Ngan.
A surgeon working at a large hospital in Hanoi expressed: "My colleagues and I are quite happy with the Ministry of Health's proposal to increase on-duty, surgical, and epidemic prevention allowances, because if the draft is approved, it will make us feel that our profession is gradually being recognized more fairly. It's not that we say it's hard to work in the medical field, but that's the reality. Surgeries last several hours, even surgeries over 10 hours, surgeons, technicians, or nurses don't know what a regular meal is, going hungry during meals is a regular occurrence for us."
Doctors at Duc Giang General Hospital perform surgery on a patient.
This surgeon believes that increasing allowances must go hand in hand with adjusting medical service prices in the direction of calculating correctly and sufficiently, otherwise it will be difficult for hospitals to be autonomous, especially lower-level hospitals.
"At that time, the hospital manager took from one place to make up for another, so the doctors' income was no different than before the allowance increase," said the doctor.
Also sharing the same opinion on the issue of medical service prices must be calculated correctly and sufficiently, otherwise adjusting allowances will be very difficult for autonomous hospitals, a leader of a unit of the Ministry of Health said that currently, the failure to calculate medical service prices correctly and sufficiently is causing great challenges for hospitals when assigned to implement the autonomous mechanism.
Accordingly, this situation directly affects financial capacity, quality of medical examination and treatment, and treatment policies for doctors, especially lower-level hospitals and specialized hospitals. When medical service prices do not fully reflect actual costs, autonomy becomes difficult and can lead to many serious consequences.
"Calculating the correct and adequate price of medical services is an urgent requirement to ensure that hospitals have sufficient financial resources in the context of implementing the autonomous mechanism. When medical service prices reflect the correct costs, the quality of medical examination and treatment will be improved, and remuneration policies for medical staff will also be ensured, thereby contributing to the development of a sustainable and equitable health system," said this leader.
Many opinions say that increasing allowances must go hand in hand with calculating the correct and adequate price of medical services.
Having shared with many of her union members when they 'left' the medical industry after the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Thuy said that the Ministry of Health's drafting of the Prime Minister's Decision stipulating a number of special allowance regimes for civil servants, public employees, and workers in public health facilities and the anti-epidemic allowance regime, including the proposal to increase allowances for on-duty, surgery, and epidemic prevention, is extremely necessary, responding to the thoughts and aspirations of health workers.
This proposal is also very suitable for the current practical situation, helping medical staff increase their income, contributing to ensuring their lives, and providing peace of mind in carrying out the work of caring for, protecting, and improving people's health in the new situation.
Former Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien
In a sharing about the issue that is of interest to hundreds of thousands of health workers, former Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien confided: "During the very difficult times of the health sector, I used to "toughly" tell my colleagues: If you enter this industry, you have to suffer! But when society has developed, the average income per capita has improved, health workers cannot be allowed to suffer forever. A commensurate income will create motivation to dedicate and burn themselves for the work of saving people, creating and inventing medicine, creating an impulse to promote the development of the health sector".
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, the proposal to increase the salary and allowances for medical staff is a welcome signal to restore fairness to those who are undertaking difficult work, requiring great effort and high responsibility in taking care of people's health.
In fact, health workers have been waiting for a decision to change the allowance for on-call duty, surgery, and epidemic prevention for a long time, because it is true that 'practice is the key to virtue', and they cannot commit when their lives are still precarious...
Source: https://giadinh.suckhoedoisong.vn/phu-cap-nganh-y-13-nam-khong-doi-5-thu-nhap-tuong-xung-la-xung-luc-thuc-day-nen-y-te-phat-trien-172241101201504648.htm
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