Long working hours, low pay, and the legacy of the pandemic are pushing healthcare workers in South East Asia to leave the sector, worsening chronic workforce shortages, reports Sonia Sarkar
When 46 year old Eli Mazur injured his head after a fall, he rushed to the state run hospital in Xuyen Moc, 100 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City. After running from one end to the other for about 30 minutes, Mazur found only two nurses, who offered to suture the cut. “It was difficult to find emergency healthcare in a rural area,” the life science lawyer at YKVN recalls.
His experience is common for many Vietnamese people visiting state run hospitals, especially in rural areas. More than 12 1001 public healthcare workers quit their jobs between January 2020 and June 2022.
A growing economy,2 increasing life expectancy,3 and greater demand for high quality4 healthcare services have put extreme pressure on understaffed and underfunded public sector healthcare facilities, which account for 86%5 of Vietnam’s hospitals. The covid-19 pandemic added to the strain, and many young doctors and nurses, overburdened with high patient load, long working hours, poor working conditions, low pay, and corruption6 are now migrating from the public to the private sector for better opportunities.
Bach Do, 32, is a cardiologist who spends about 10 hours a day at the government-run Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi. He conducts about 50 patient consultations a day in the outpatient department, and is assigned night shifts once a week.
At the height of the pandemic, like many of his colleagues, Do carried out mass testing for SARS-CoV-2 in factories and businesses, administered vaccines, and recorded data on infected individuals. “More than 300 healthcare professionals left the hospital in 2021 and 2022, many to pursue higher paying jobs …
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Hanoi , Han I , Vietnam , Republic Of , Bach Mai , Xuyen Moc , Bàa Vung Tàvm , Ho Chi Minh City , H Chíinh , Vietnamese , Sonia Sarkar , Eli Mazur , , South East Asia , Bach Mai Hospital ,
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