Some 221 practitioners and staffers of Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital, one of the largest public health facilities in Vietnam, have turned in their resignation over the past year.

Discussing this issue with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Nguyen Quang Tuan, director of Bach Mai Hospital, confirmed the mass departure.

Some are highly qualified medical workers who switched to better paying jobs, while a majority are less skilled staffers who became dissatisfied with the hospital’s decision to go fully self-funded instead of relying on state subsidies, or displeased at their job rotation at the facility, Tuan said.

Pressure from the COVID-19 workload is also a possible reason for the mass departure, added Do Van Thanh, head of human resources at Bach Mai Hospital.

While 221 had departed, the facility has also recruited 506 new practitioners and officers, many of whom hold senior medical titles.

“Our hospital is striving for a change in service quality,” Thanh stated.

“Pressures of changes might be the reason for many staffers to leave.”

The Ministry of Health, the immediate managing body of Bach Mai Hospital, demanded a full list of resigned staffers along with an explanation from the hospital management after being informed of the situation in February.

“The hospital is responsible for the administration and usage of human resources in their facility,” a Ministry of Health official stated.

In a responding report submitted on March 22, the hospital leaders cited the reduced benefit package, which stems from the poor revenue that the institution reported during the pandemic, as the reason for the mass resignation.

Bach Mai Hospital also requested the Ministry of Health to raise the price ceiling for medical services to improve its returns, which will help uplift the income of personnel.

The report also mentioned tempting job offers from private hospitals that target highly-skilled practitioners in public facilities, which may cause a 'brain drain' from the public sector.

Bach Mai is a central-level hospital in Hanoi under the management of the Ministry of Health.

It receives some 6,000-7,000 visiting patients per day, with an outstanding reputation for many of its departments, including emergency, poison control, rehabilitation, cardiovascular medicine, cancer treatment, and orthopedics.

The hospital faced multiple mishaps in 2020, as it was placed on lockdown for over one month due to a coronavirus outbreak in the facility, plus two of its former executives were detained over allegations of inflating prices of medical equipment.

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