Ho Chi Minh City needs more than 1,000 rotating doctors to the grassroots level
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City submits a draft Resolution stipulating policies to support people who implement rotational regimes for a limited time to public basic level medical examination and treatment facilities and commune, ward, and special zone health stations in the city.
The policy is built to strengthen specialized medical human resources for grassroots levels, contributing to improving the quality of medical examination and treatment, reducing referrals and creating conditions for people to access medical services right at their place of residence.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, after arranging administrative units, the city's health system includes 164 hospitals, 13 health centers and 168 commune, ward, and special zone health stations with 296 station points.
Health stations are the nearest health tuyến to the people, performing many tasks such as primary health care, health insurance medical examination and treatment, non-communicable disease management, disease prevention and control, vaccination, maternal and child health care and electronic health record management.
The review results of the Department of Health in 2026 show that 168 Health Stations are managing about 14.5 million people, with 1,415 doctors working, of which 1,073 doctors have been licensed to practice. However, the synthesis of needs shows that Health Stations need 1,046 rotating doctors to meet professional operation requirements. The demand is not only concentrated in general practitioners but also in many specialties such as internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, traditional medicine, eye, ear, nose, throat and maxillofacial dentistry.
Proposal to support from 8-20 million VND/person/month
According to the draft Resolution appraised by the Culture - Society Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council, the policy is aimed at 3 groups including health workers who are rotated, public health facilities in the area and relevant agencies, organizations, and individuals. The group of health workers mentioned includes doctors, nurses, midwives, medical techniques and pharmacists working at public health facilities in the city, meeting practicing conditions and being rotated by the Department of Health.
The level of support is proposed according to professional qualifications. Specifically, doctors with the academic title of professor, associate professor; doctoral degree or specialist level II doctor are supported with 20 million VND/person/month. Resident doctors, specialist level I doctors and specialist doctors granted according to regulations are supported with 17 million VND/person/month; doctors in the remaining cases are 12 million VND/person/month.
For nurses, midwives, medical technicians and pharmacists with university degrees or higher, the proposed support level is 10 million VND/person/month; college degree is 8 million VND/person/month. People who are rotated to Thanh An island commune enjoy a support level of 1.2 times; in Con Dao special zone is 1.5 times the corresponding support level.
According to the appraisal report, the total estimated cost of policy implementation is about VND 108.306 billion/year. This item only includes additional monthly support according to the draft, not counting overlaps with salaries, allowances and other benefits that medical staff are entitled to according to current regulations.
