Nurses sell vegetables, doctors drive motorbike taxis
Yen Bai Transport Hospital in Yen Bai Ward, Lao Cai Province used to be a familiar address for medical examination and treatment for local people. However, since January 2021, the hospital has fallen into a state of financial imbalance, unable to pay salaries to employees. Professional activities were then interrupted, and stopped completely by mid-2024.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Hoan (46 years old, hospital chief accountant) calculated that the total salary debt of the hospital is more than 5 billion VND, the social insurance debt is about 1.4 billion and the supplier debt is hundreds of millions of VND.
About 50 officers and employees are owed wages, on average each person owes from 80 - 150 million VND, depending on the position and working time. Not only salary, social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance payments are delayed for more than 24 months, causing many workers to lose their legal rights. To have money to cover their living expenses, many doctors have to take advantage of driving motorbike taxis and nurses to the market to sell vegetables. After many years of hopeless resistance, up to now, there are only 4 officers and employees taking turns on duty and cleaning up the hospital" - Ms. Hoan sadly said.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuan (hospital nurse) also confided that she once asked to help out with the restaurant to earn more income. After that, she moved to work for hire for a milk store and then sold online to wait for a new job and soon stabilize her life.
According to the reporter of Lao Dong Newspaper, Yen Bai Transport Hospital has 4 buildings including the treatment area of the Department of Oriental Medicine, House A, House B and House C. In the campus of more than 1,200m2, overgrown grass and discoloured signs.
Mr. Vu Van Phong (veteran), who had been treated for many years at Yen Bai Transport Hospital, said with sad eyes: "All doctors and nurses are enthusiastic and take good care of me. Now that the hospital is devastated, the staff and employees are the ones who send complaints asking for salary payment, resolving policies and jobs but are heartbroken.
Will resolve the rights of hospital staff and civil servants
According to the Department of Transport Health, the handover of Yen Bai Transport Hospital is currently being carried out between the Ministry of Transport (now the Ministry of Construction) and the People's Committee of Yen Bai province (now Lao Cai province).
Regarding unpaid wages, late payment of social insurance and suspension of operations, the Department of Transport Health Department believes that the cause comes from the COVID-19 epidemic period, when the hospital's revenue decreased sharply, it was not supported with funding, leading to financial imbalance... Along with that, Mr. Nguyen Van Giang - former Director of Yen Bai Transport Hospital - and a number of officers and doctors were criminally prosecuted in the health insurance fraud case in the period of 2017 - 2020, causing the unit to no longer have qualified professional staff to replace the head of the unit. This led to the hospital being unable to carry out procedures to change the license to operate medical examination and treatment, losing the ability to sign a health insurance medical examination and treatment contract and being forced to temporarily suspend operations from June 2024. On October 24, 2025, the Ministry of Construction issued a document requesting the Department of Transport Health to receive the handover of Yen Bai Transport Hospital before completing the transfer to the People's Committee of Lao Cai province for management. The Department of Transport Health is responsible for organizing supervision, preservation, and coordinating with the People's Committee of Lao Cai province to completely hand over the hospital and continue to resolve the remaining contents of the hospital in the past time.
The Ministry of Construction affirmed that after the handover is completed, it will coordinate with the People's Committee of Lao Cai province to resolve the rights of hospital staff and civil servants.
