According to the Gia Lai Provincial Department of Health, by 2025, the province will reach a rate of 9.1 doctors/10,000 people, while the general target for the whole country is 15 doctors/10,000 people. The rate of pharmacists/10,000 people reaches 2.8, lower than the national average of 3.4 pharmacists/10,000 people.
The Department of Health assesses that the number of doctors and pharmacists in the area is still very low compared to the actual demand. To achieve the set target, the province needs to add about 1,830 doctors and nearly 200 pharmacists.
Meanwhile, the number of hospital beds increasing annually according to the approval of the Ministry of Health makes the demand for medical personnel recruitment continue to increase in the coming time.
In 2025, Gia Lai needs to recruit 868 doctors for public non-business units, but in reality, it is expected to only recruit less than 200 people. The shortage of doctors in the western region of the province is even more serious, especially in remote, isolated, and mountainous areas.
On May 29, at the 3rd thematic session of the Provincial People's Council, Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee submitted a draft resolution stipulating a number of policies to attract and offer incentives to doctors and pharmacists in the province.
According to the draft, the subjects eligible for the attraction policy include: Professors, associate professors of medicine and pharmacy; doctors, pharmacists with doctoral degrees; specialist doctors II, specialist pharmacists II; medical masters, pharmaceutical masters; specialist doctors I, specialist pharmacists I; resident doctors... In addition, doctors and pharmacists who graduate from the formal system at domestic and foreign training institutions recognized by the Ministry of Education and Training are also eligible for preferential and attraction policies.
Gia Lai province also plans to support housing rent at a rate of 3 million VND/month for a maximum of 5 years for cases where there is no housing. At the same time, these subjects will be prioritized to buy social housing and enjoy preferential loan policies according to State regulations.
For the one-time support policy, the expected support level ranges from 100 - 650 million VND for doctors, professors, doctors and high-quality medical personnel. The total budget estimated for incentive and attraction policies in 2026 is about 81 billion VND.
Explaining the issuance of a separate preferential mechanism, a representative of the Gia Lai Provincial Department of Health said that the medical industry has its own characteristics with high entrance scores, long training time, and high tuition fees. After graduation, doctors and pharmacists also have to go through a long period of professional practice to be licensed to practice.
The internship period is 12 months for doctors and 24 months for university pharmacists.
According to the Department of Health, in the face of the current human resource needs, it is necessary to develop separate policies to attract, recruit and retain the team of doctors and pharmacists, contributing to improving the quality of medical services in the province in areas such as preventive medicine, disease prevention and control, medical examination and treatment, and food safety.
