Due to the lack of doctors, nurses at the Tân Lập Commune’s health centre in Kon Rẫy District in Kon Tum Province face many difficulties. VNA/VNS Photo Dư Toán

KON TUM — The shortage of doctors in the central highland province of Kon Tum, especially in remote areas with high ethnic minority populations, has reached a critical level, requiring the province to have special mechanisms to train human resources to serve people's medical needs.

Currently, the entire province has 539 doctors. Of those, 294 are working at provincial hospitals, 146 at district hospitals, and 99 at communal health centres.

The shortage of doctors has remained a challenging issue in the province for years. In Kon Rẫy District, there are only 17 doctors although the required target of this locality was 32 doctors to ensure a minimum ratio of 10.5 doctors per 10,000 people.

Due to the insufficient number, the allocation of doctors to commune health centres encounters many difficulties. There are only three out of a total of six commune health centres staffed with doctors in the district.

At Tân Lập Commune’s health centre, there are only two practitioners and two nurses available to examine patients.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Huyền, head of the medical centre, stated that previously the centre had one doctor. However, due to the shortage of doctors at the district level, the doctor was moved to work at the regional polyclinic in Đắk Rve in January.

Tân Lập Commune’s health centre had been without a doctor since then, she said.

“We are unable to perform certain procedures and use specialised equipment such as ultrasound and electrocardiogram machines. In severe cases, we are forced to transfer patients to higher-level facilities,” she said.

“If we had enough doctors, patients with severe conditions wouldn't have to travel. Additionally, some medications can only be prescribed by doctors, so we cannot dispense them without one," she shared.

Dr Nguyễn Luận, Deputy Director in charge of the Kon Rẫy District’s Health Centre, said that the district had consistently failed to meet the number of doctors required according to the staffing targets set by the Department of Health since 2020.

The reasons leading to this situation were that medical graduates often do not wish to work at district-level hospitals. Additionally, some doctors resign to establish their own private medical facilities.

Statistics show that seven doctors in Kon Rẫy District had resigned, but the district had been unable to replace them since 2020.

“The scarcity of doctors poses challenges in sending them for training and expanding medical services. Remaining doctors must fill in the gaps, working tirelessly to ensure medical care for those seeking education,” Luận explained.

Kon Rẫy District currently has only 17 doctors, meeting just over 50 per cent of the demand for 32 doctors in the locality. VNA/VNS Photo Dư Toán

Trần Ái, Deputy Director of the Kon Tum Provincial Department of Health, said that the province still needed about 100 additional doctors to ensure a ratio of 10.5 - 11 doctors per 10,000 people.

Recruiting doctors to work in remote areas, particularly those inhabited by ethnic minority communities, is quite difficult, according to Ái. In the recruitment campaign in 2023, the province aimed to recruit 108 doctors, but only managed to recruit 23 general practitioners and six reserve doctors.

Ái also highlighted that the capacity of the province's grassroots healthcare workforce still had many shortcomings.

According to Luận, another difficulty is the failure to attract additional doctors or motivate medical workers to undergo training as there is currently no support policy for doctors pursuing further education.

Due to the high costs of education, particularly in specialised fields, healthcare facilities struggle to encourage staff development.

The district health centre has encouraged doctors to undertake short-term training, lasting three to six months, for simple services that do not require high-level specialisation at the provincial hospital. For commune health centres without doctors, the district health centre regularly sends doctors to provide medical examinations and treatment.

Y Ngọc, Vice Chairwoman of the Kon Tum Provincial People's Committee, said the province proposed the Government consider implementing special mechanisms for training doctors on-site to help address the current shortage of doctors at the grassroots level in the province.

“If there are no mechanisms for training doctors from ethnic minority communities, those living in remote areas in Kon Tum Province will continue to lack doctors in the next five to ten years,” she stressed. — VNS