According to the Ministry of Health, there are currently 214 health personnel training facilities nationwide, including 66 universities, 139 vocational training facilities, and 9 research institutes with doctoral training; of which, according to management decentralization, the Ministry of Health manages 22 schools and institutes.
The number of doctors graduating in 2023 nationwide is 11,297; the number of pharmacists graduating in 2023 is 8,470; the number of nurses graduating in 2023 is 18,178. At the same time, continue to develop regulations related to the specifics of medical human resource training to perfect the institution to create a legal environment for implementing innovation in medical human resource training.
The Ministry of Health assessed that the scale of Vietnam's health workforce has increased insignificantly over the past 10 years (up 2.33%). The total health workforce is currently 431,724 people, much lower than the expected 632,510 people in the Health Human Resource Development Plan for the 2011-2020 period.
The Ministry of Health said the medical sector is lacking in quantity and quality, and has an imbalance in medical human resources in terms of both distribution and structure of professional staff.
"At medical examination and treatment facilities, especially public hospitals, the structure of clinical professional human resources does not meet the requirements of medical examination and treatment, patient care and is at risk of not ensuring service quality and patient safety" - the Ministry of Health report stated.
Faced with that situation, the Ministry of Health has made proposals and recommendations related to the issue of training human resources in the health sector.
Proposals and recommendations to the Government from the Ministry of Health in the report at the conference summarizing the health sector in 2025 on December 24, the Ministry of Health proposed that the Government pay attention to directing and promulgating regimes and policies on treatment and attracting human resources in the health sector.
Direct relevant agencies to research and approve a number of incentive and attraction policies equivalent to those in the education sector, such as: Medical and pharmaceutical students are supported by the state to pay tuition fees equal to the tuition fees of the training institution where they study; and support to pay living expenses during their time studying at school.
According to international recommendations, the nurse/doctor ratio must be >2 nurses/doctor and requires 1 nurse not to be in charge of more than 7-8 inpatients, and in surgical and intensive care departments this ratio is 4/1.
However, currently public hospitals only achieve a ratio of 1.2-1.5 nurses/doctor and 1 nurse is still responsible for taking care of an average of 10-15 inpatient beds.
According to the Ministry of Health, the capacity of medical staff, especially doctors at the grassroots level, has not met the actual requirements in health care to respond to changes in disease patterns and health problems related to population aging.
