60% of schools do not have medical staff, Ho Chi Minh City urgently finds solutions

School medical staff Not only taking care of students’ health, food safety and hygiene, but also taking care of disease prevention, prevention of accidents and injuries, psychological counseling on sex.

New developments of the epidemic are causing Ho Chi Minh City to place urgent demands on finding solutions to the problem of staff shortages and recruiting medical staff in schools soon.

Although there are more than 1.7 million students, out of more than 1,000 public schools in Ho Chi Minh City, there are only 7 doctors. The number of staff with medical qualifications also accounts for nearly 40%. The remaining 60% do not have medical qualifications and most of them are clerical staff, accountants, etc. part-time.

In this school year, Thu Duc city recruited nearly 100 positions, but currently only one third of applications are submitted. There is no official payroll but only a contract, low wages are the reasons why medical professionals are not interested in this position.

Medical staff at Trung Do Primary School (Vinh City, Nghe An Province) examine students’ health. (Photo: People’s Army Newspaper)

At the seminar on the importance of school health workers, the Department of Culture and Social Affairs of the People’s Council of Ho Chi Minh City, the Department of Health and the Department of Education and Training of the city and universities proposed to Ho Chi Minh City propose relevant agencies to remove difficulties in recruiting personnel for this position (specifically, it is recommended to amend regulations on independent positions of school medical staff, not part-time, and at the same time have a specific salary regime to immediately supplement this human resource in schools).

In Thu Duc city alone, out of more than 640 public schools, half of them do not have a medical room. The whole city has only one doctor and one third of medical staff with professional qualifications. The remaining 2/3 (about 400 medical staff) do not have medical expertise but are concurrently held by other staff.

It is expected that the recommendations of the departments, branches and experts will be sent by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to the City Council for consideration as well as the relevant agencies for adjustment in the shortest time.

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