Human resources increase but doctors are still lacking
After implementing the two-level local government model, the grassroots health system in Ninh Binh has had major changes in organization, personnel and service scope. After arrangement, 451 health stations in Ninh Binh province were reorganized into 129 stations under the management of the People's Committees of communes and wards.
Mr. Trinh Viet Dien - Head of the Organization and Personnel Department (under the Ninh Binh Provincial Department of Health) said that from July 1, 2025, the health station system will be rearranged to suit the new administrative unit. The whole province has established 129 health stations that are public non-business units directly under the commune-level People's Committee based on the rearrangement of the previous 451 health stations. Health points in the old communes continue to be maintained to facilitate people's access to basic health services.
The arrangement helps reduce 322 focal points, but at the same time sharply increases the management scale of each station. On average, each health station manages about 32,000 people, more than 4 times more than before the arrangement, and the scope of management is also expanded. Along with that, the health station is assigned additional tasks on preventive medicine, population, health management, digital transformation and grassroots health programs.
Grassroots healthcare human resources have been significantly strengthened. As of May 31, 2026, 129 health stations had a total of 3,230 people, an increase of 591 people compared to before July 1, 2025. In which, the number of doctors increased from 321 to 415 people; nurses from 698 to 889 people; pharmacists from 371 to 433 people; public health human resources increased from 50 to 123 people. Currently, 100% of health stations have doctors, but most are still not sufficient in number according to the structure. The whole province is still lacking more than 400 doctors for commune-level health stations" - Mr. Dien said.
Policy to attract doctors to communes
According to calculations by the Ninh Binh provincial health sector, after arrangement, newly established health stations need about 4,682 personnel, but currently there are only 3,230 people, still lacking 1,452 people in many positions. Among them, the most notable is the team of doctors, the whole province needs 817 doctors for health stations, but currently there are only 415 people, lacking 402 people and only meeting about 50.8% of the demand. In addition, the stations also lack 123 nurses, 118 pharmacists, 124 medical techniques, 113 nutrition personnel, 118 social workers and many other positions.
Head of the Organization and Personnel Department, Ninh Binh Provincial Department of Health Trinh Viet Dien, assessed that the shortage of human resources, especially doctors, nurses and pharmacists, makes the pressure at the grassroots level still high. The distribution of human resources between localities is not even, while working conditions in some places are not attractive enough to attract highly qualified human resources.
During the time when there is not enough recruitment, regional general hospitals are required to arrange doctors to provide professional support for health stations; and at the same time strengthen technical transfer, remote consultation, practical guidance and tuyến direction. The health sector also implements articulation training from doctors to doctors, postgraduate training and continuous training for grassroots healthcare teams" - Mr. Dien shared.
Also according to Mr. Dien, currently the salary and allowance regime for grassroots health personnel is mainly implemented according to general regulations. The Department of Health has proposed to the Provincial People's Committee to develop a policy to attract human resources to submit to the People's Council for promulgation a resolution on policies to attract, train and develop health human resources in the period 2026 - 2030.
According to the proposal, the priority group includes doctors, university pharmacists and highly qualified medical personnel working at health stations. The proposed options include one-time support when recruiting, postgraduate training support, income support or other incentive policies to attract and retain doctors to work long-term at the grassroots level.
In addition to new recruitment, Ninh Binh province's health sector also determines to continue rotating officials and strengthening human resources from the upper level to the commune level, especially for stations that are still lacking doctors. According to the direction of the health sector, the arrangement of human resources in the coming time must be based on population size, local characteristics and workload at each station instead of just relying on the number of focal points.
Among the 129 commune-level health stations in Ninh Binh, 103 stations are assigned personnel targets for 2026, of which 35 stations have sufficient personnel according to the assigned targets, accounting for 27.13% and 68 stations are lacking personnel, accounting for 52.71%.
