Hospital doctors and tuition fees put pressure on many people
After many years of studying, Nguyen Trung Nghia (name changed), just graduated as a resident doctor (BSNT) of General Surgery course 2022-2025, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City.
According to Dr. Nghia, the BSNT program lasts for 3 years, most of the practice time is at the hospital. If practiced for more than 6 months, BSNT can be contracted and partially supported by the hospital, depending on the policy of each unit.
I practiced for 3 years at Binh Dan Hospital, so I received support of about 12-15 million VND/month. This is a support, not fixed and not completely the same as the official doctor's salary," Dr. Nghia shared.
Regarding tuition fees, each year doctors pay about 63 million VND, equivalent to more than 180 million VND in 3 years. In addition, doctors do not have to pay additional costs for the hospital during the internship period.
According to Dr. Nghia, for those who are not supported by their families, both paying tuition and worrying about living and living for 3 years is a significant pressure.
I think that if there is a support policy from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health for BSNT, it will help reduce financial pressure, so that doctors can focus more on studying and professional training," said Dr. Nghia.
Doctors also believe that medical doctor training is a special opportunity because the entrance exam is only held once, with high competitiveness; during the learning process, doctors can directly practice and participate in professional work at the hospital.
Ho Chi Minh City needs strong policies to attract resident doctors
Ho Chi Minh City is lacking specializedly trained doctors, while the number of resident doctors (BSNT) continuing to work in the public health system is still low. According to statistics from the health sector, BSNT currently only accounts for about 10-12% of the total number of doctors practicing at public hospitals, while the city's demand for specialized human resources is many times higher.
Notably, the demand for BSNT at public hospitals under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health is determined to be about 400 people per year. The demand is concentrated in high-tech specialties, making it difficult to attract human resources.
The BSNT program lasts 3 years, requiring learners to both study theory and full-time clinical practice at the hospital. During this time, doctors have to pay for their own tuition and living expenses, while they do not have a stable income. This is identified as one of the reasons why the BSNT training program is not attractive enough, especially for young doctors who have just graduated.
According to a survey at 12 public medical training institutions nationwide, BSNT tuition fees currently range from about 65-77 million VND/year. With a training period of 3 years, tuition fees alone can be up to more than 200 million VND if calculated at the highest level, not including living expenses.
To solve this problem, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has approved a specific policy to support BSNT training. Accordingly, doctors are supported with 100% of actual tuition fees, up to 100 million VND/person/school year. With 15 priority and difficult-to-attract majors such as emergency resuscitation, general anesthesia and resuscitation, psychiatry, oncology, cardiology, pediatrics..., BSNT is also supported with 10.62 million VND/month for living expenses.
It is expected that each year the city will support a maximum of 400 BSNT, of which about 80 people are in difficult-to-attract specialties. The total policy implementation cost is about 50.195 billion VND/year, including 40 billion VND for tuition fee support and more than 10.2 billion VND for living expenses support.
The policy takes effect from September 9, 2026 to December 31, 2030, and also links training support with the requirement for doctors after graduation to work in the city's public health system. This is expected to be a solution that both reduces the financial burden for learners and creates a long-term specialized human resource for Ho Chi Minh City.
