On June 7, Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee said that the province has a plan to rotate doctors to work for a fixed term at commune-level health stations in 2026, in order to strengthen health capacity at the grassroots level.
Currently, the whole province has 135 commune-level health stations with 369 station points. Of which, 293 doctors are working at health stations. However, the team of doctors is not evenly distributed between localities.
According to the review, there are currently 4 health stations without doctors, including Thong Nhat Ward Health Station, Hoi Phu Ward, Ia Grai commune and Cho Long commune. In addition, 76 stations do not have doctors.
The whole province has 74/135 health stations proposing the need to increase doctors. Most of these units have a thin number of doctors but must simultaneously undertake many tasks such as medical examination and treatment, preventive medicine, disease prevention and control, vaccination, non-communicable disease management, maternal and child health care and people's health management.
Some health stations manage many stations, have large areas, dispersed populations or have a large volume of professional work, putting pressure on maintaining regular doctors at the facility.
According to the plan, in 2026, the province is expected to rotate 38 doctors from public medical examination and treatment facilities to provide professional support in 30 communes and wards with priority needs.
Doctors can work regularly at the health station or provide support according to appropriate professional schedules. The rotation period is at least 6 months, maximum 12 months, unless they voluntarily participate for a longer period.
Doctors can also be rotated in several installments, at least 3 days per week or 1 week per month, and time is accumulated to calculate the completion of rotation tasks.
Leaders of Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee said that in the context of limited doctor human resources in the health sector, it is necessary to develop a plan to rotate doctors for timely support at commune-level health stations, in order to promptly strengthen capacity for grassroots health care levels, meeting the health care needs of people.
The rotation is carried out on the principle of not changing the long-term working unit of doctors. Doctors are assigned to perform tasks of medical examination and treatment, preventive medicine, non-communicable disease management, primary health care, professional guidance and other tasks as assigned.
The province prioritizes arranging doctors for health stations lacking manpower in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions, border areas, remote and isolated areas, and ethnic minority areas; and prioritizes localities with many dispersed stations or far from upper-level health facilities.
