Review and supplement human resources for grassroots levels
On August 18, in an exchange with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Diep Thi Minh Quyet - Director of Quang Tri Department of Health said that the health sector is continuing to review grassroots-level personnel, thereby having a plan to arrange doctors suitable for the needs of people's medical examination, treatment and health care.
Currently, the whole province has 1,920 doctors, including 1,473 doctors from the public sector, 217 doctors from Vietnam - Cuba Dong Hoi Friendship Hospital and 230 doctors at private medical facilities, reaching about 11.4 doctors/10,000 people.
At the grassroots level, 77 commune-level health stations currently have 2,425 employees, including 440 doctors, accounting for about 30% of doctors in the public health system. Among the 77 health stations, Vinh Dinh commune only has 2 doctors, 10 communes have 3 doctors; there are 9 communes and wards with 4 doctors and 15 communes with 5 doctors; the remaining stations have 6-11 doctors; of which Vinh Linh commune has 10 doctors, Dong Hoi ward has 11 doctors.
Meanwhile, the goal set for 2030 is that 100% of commune and ward health stations will have 4-5 doctors working. Therefore, to meet the requirements of primary health care in the new period, continuing to consolidate and supplement doctors' personnel for the grassroots level is a requirement.
According to the Quang Tri health sector, mountainous areas, remote and isolated areas such as Huong Hoa, Dakrong, Tuyen Hoa, Minh Hoa and some other areas are still lacking general practitioners. These are also areas that need to be concerned about in the process of human resource supplementation in the coming time.
Target to add about 300 doctors
One of the important solutions identified by Quang Tri is to proactively build human resources for the 2026-2030 period.
In this period, the entire Quang Tri health sector is expected to have 56 retired doctors, of which the commune level has 17 people. The goal is to reach 13 doctors/10,000 people by 2030. To achieve the goal, the whole province needs about 2,210 doctors, equivalent to the need to add about 300 doctors compared to the present. Public health career block alone needs about 200 more doctors.
The healthcare human resources project for the period 2026-2030 aims to attract and train 200 more general practitioners. In which, the province plans to attract 100 doctors, including doctors with postgraduate degrees, general practitioners and retired doctors to continue working; and at the same time train 100 full-time general practitioners according to the address of use.
To create more motivation to attract quality human resources for the health sector, the Department of Health has advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Quang Tri Provincial People's Council for promulgation a resolution on policies to support, remunerate, train and rotate, and strengthen health human resources in the period 2026-2030. The resolution takes effect from July 27, 2026.
Ms. Quyet said that for a long time, the source of doctors for the grassroots level has mainly been supplemented from articulation training to doctors and regular doctor training programs by address, while very few regular doctors voluntarily come to work in communes and wards. In the coming years, when a part of commune-level doctors reach retirement age, the risk of doctor shortage at the grassroots level will become even clearer.
Therefore, the province's new policy allocates many levels of support to attract regular doctors to the grassroots level, and at the same time creates resources early by supporting tuition fees and living expenses for students of the province to study for doctors.
The cost of training doctors is currently very high, so supporting them from when they are still in school both helps them have conditions to pursue medicine and creates a long-term source of doctors for grassroots levels," Ms. Quyet said.
