According to the Health Department of Binh Thuan Province, the province’s 32 hospitals and medical centers need 187 doctors and hundreds of pharmacists and university-trained medical workers.
Recent departmental statistics showed there were 66 doctors and medical workers at medical stations scattered throughout the province’s 127 communes.
Only 52 percent of communes have medical services now, compared with 90 percent in 2004.
People are facing difficulties accessing basic health care services when such services are not available in their communes, a department official said.
The official also said the lack of local medical services meant hospitals and medical centers were overloaded with patients.
Statistics showed the province had a total of 483 doctors, 20 pharmacists and 46 university-trained medical workers.
On a per capita basis, the province has one doctor per 2,500 people.
Like many other provinces, Binh Thuan has no doctor-training facilities.
The only medical school, Binh Thuan Medical College, trains nurses.
Many local students who study to become doctors remain in the big cities after completing their degrees.
Head of Binh Thuan Health Department’s Personnel Branch, Le Thanh Phuong, said most of the recently hired doctors were medical workers from the province who had been sent to medical universities to upgrade their qualifications.
Phuong said there had only been about five new doctors recruited each year.
He said many other provinces were also having difficulty recruiting new doctors even though the number of graduates from medical universities has been increasing each year.
In the last four years, 33 doctors have also quit jobs at hospitals and medical centers in the province, including seven doctors from Binh Thuan General Hospital.
Another cause of the doctor shortage was due to the poor organization of personnel in the health system, said Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chau, former deputy director of Binh Thuan Health Department.
“Several provincial hospitals have been overloaded, while many specialized doctors have been sent to district medical centers which don’t have the facilities for their type of specialized surgery,” he said.
“There was a doctor who specialized in a phaco surgery (a form of cataract surgery) who was sent to a district medical center which could not provide such surgery.”
Director of Binh Thuan Health Department, Nguyen Van Nhon, also said there should be a reorganization of health personnel in the province.
Nhon also said the department had asked the provincial People’s Committee for an increased budget to train new doctors.
Nhon also said there should be favorable conditions to attract doctors to the province.
“Besides a high salary, there should be an adequate working environment to attract doctors,” said Phan Ngoc Hung, director of An Phuoc Hospital in Binh Thuan Province, the first private hospital in the south-central region.
Reported by Que Ha |
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