Yen Bai Transport Hospital is located on a campus of over 1,200m2 in Yen Bai Ward, Lao Cai Province, including 4 buildings: Dong An Hospital Patient Treatment Area, House A, House B and House C. Since 2021, the hospital has begun to fall into a state of unpaid salaries for doctors, nurses and hospital staff.
From June 2024 to now, medical examination and treatment has almost stopped. Some cadres and civil servants still stay, maintain care and operation at the grassroots level.
After the recent storm, a layer of mud about 30cm thick covered the hospital grounds.Service vehicles and patient transport vehicles were flooded in mud and were severely damaged.Inside the hospital, facilities and equipment were also covered with dust.
Mr. Lai Van Quynh - Head of the Organization Department, Chairman of the Trade Union of Yen Bai Transport Hospital said - from 65 union members to now, the hospital trade union has only 17 people, and activities have also been interrupted.
According to Mr. Quynh, the total salary debt of the hospital is more than 5 billion VND, the social insurance debt is about 1.4 billion VND and the supplier owes hundreds of millions of VND. 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.
"While waiting for the job and regime to be resolved, the union has met and agreed to contribute money to clean up the hospital, not to let the mud and dirt flood everywhere like this forever," Mr. Lai Van Quynh shared.
Doctor Nguyen Thi Hien also said that from the end of 2020, the Department of Transport Health (old Ministry of Transport) will hand over to the locality for management and cut all regular operating expenses of the hospital. Meanwhile, the old Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee has not yet received the hospital, leading to deteriorated facilities and no money to buy medicine and medical supplies. When the Ministry of Transport merged into the Ministry of Construction, Yen Bai province merged with Lao Cai province, the handover work continued to be interrupted.
"We hope that the authorities will soon resolve the issue and arrange jobs for hospital staff," said Dr. Nguyen Thi Hien.
At the November meeting, the Standing Committee of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee assigned the Provincial People's Committee to coordinate with competent authorities to resolve the issues related to the handover and acceptance of the Yen Bai Transport Hospital in its original state in accordance with the provisions of law and the direction of the Government.
The Ministry of Construction also issued a document requesting that within the time the transfer to the People's Committee of Lao Cai province for management, the Department of Transport Health is responsible for organizing the supervision, preservation, and prevention of loss and deterioration of assets of Yen Bai Transport Hospital.
Mr. Hoang Quoc Huong - Director of the Department of Health of Lao Cai province - said: Relevant departments and branches are studying the direction to remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of receiving Yen Bai Transport Hospital.
After the agreement, relevant departments and branches reported to the People's Committee of Lao Cai province for consideration and proposal to the Ministry of Construction to report to the Government to dissolve Yen Bai Transport Hospital and completely resolve the hospital's debts.
After the dissolutions, Lao Cai province will receive all available civil servants to arrange to public service units under the Department of Health.
