Ministry of Health to change payment policies

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien

Currently, doctors from all departments are paid the same salary. Extra allowances are only given to doctors in certain specialised departments. However, even these allowances are relatively low and widely thought among doctors to be unfair. For example, HIV/AID doctors earn small allowances and have no retirement benefits.

According to the minister, such shortcomings will cause brain drain and could discourage doctors from work and research. Worse, she said, it could lead to violations, adding that the ministry will propose solutions to deal with payment, such as adding seniority allowances and setting up new criteria for starting salaries.

"We'll also try to reduce the hospital overload in order to ease working hours and the pressure on doctors. The service fees will be recalculated since government only provides insurance to families living in poverty, near-poverty or in some other special cases." she said.

The minister said that the starting wages of doctors should be higher than those of other agencies because of the training they must go through. They have brought this urgent matter to the higher-ups twice and intend to continue to pursue the matter. She said, "We also want to improve the allowance policies for doctors and medical staff at facilities located in rural and disadvantaged areas."

Pham Manh Hung, head of Vietnam Medical Association, thought that government should have a new financial management system to make the financial workings of hospitals more transparent. However, Tien added that changing the system would need to be done at the same at all levels to avoid adverse effects.

Talking about the various scandals and violations that have broken out in the medical sector last year, Tien reminded all doctors of the importance of maintaining their moral integrity when they serve patients.