Improving the Skills of Health Workers

In 2011, not only Hau Giang province, but also the whole country faced a suddenly increase in diseases, especially dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). Specifically, Hau Giang province recorded 714 cases of dengue fever, 1,829 cases of hand, food and mouth disease with 6 deaths, but no cases of influenza A (H5N1). According to Mr Vo An Ninh, Director of Health Department of Hau Giang province, those successes arose from the intensive direction and timely instruction of provincial party and People’s committee and cooperation with other sectors in propaganda to the public as well as the efforts of health workers, especially in the preventive medicine and primary health care sector; furthermore, Hau Giang province actively organized sanitation campaigns against dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease right before the diseases were expected to spread.

 

Disease inspection systems are focused from various levels of villages - communes - districts - province, and there is a tight coordination between treatment and preventive medicine systems, and feedback information aiming to track confirmed disease cases and implement appropriate preventive methods. Monitoring and treatment processes also have been concentrated under preventive health care system officials to directly engage in disease treatment with all available technical skills.

 

Regarding health human resources, the number of health employees has increased annually since province division. Their professional skills have also been improved; specialists are also well trained and fostered. The number of health employees with postgraduate qualifications in 2011 was 184, up 131 people compared to 2004; under-graduate health employees in 2011 was 417, up 181 people compared to 2004; currently, there are pharmacist, midwife or obsteric-paediatric assistant doctor in 100 percent of commune health centres; Hau Giang has 4.5 doctors per 10,000 people; 0.58 pharmacists per 10,000 people; and the rate of nurses to doctors in treatment centres of Hau Giang is 1.38.

 

Moreover, political – ideological tasks, promoting the campaign calling upon studying and emulating Ho Chi Minh has improved the spirit and attitude towards patients; regular ethics education for the staff has reduced inconvenience to patients; the province also fulfils patriotic emulation movements; does research, promotes technical innovation and improvement; constantly cares for tasks of building the Party, the sector and unions, implementing democratic regulations in organizations.

 

Mr Ninh said that in the future the health sector of Hau Giang will keep on promoting achievements that it has acquired for recent years: Building a detailed project of developing health sector human resources of Hau Giang; focusing on long term training, regular undergraduate education, mainly in Medicine University of Can Tho. As for irregular centralized education (the main labour force contributing to the development of health sector), post-graduate education will focus on specialties serving various; establishing health staff training centres or medical high school to actively train staff as a backup for the sector; regarding fostering and improving professional skills for health staff, the Department of Health will cooperate with training centres and specialty hospitals to train staff in specialties, especially to train in team in order to apply new technology, as well as to use effectively modern and advanced health equipment.