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Young volunteer doctors will be dispatched to 62 poorest districts in mountainous, remote, border and island regions under a project launched by the Health Ministry on February 27.

The project aims to improve the quality of healthcare services in disadvantaged localities to help erase outdated practices.

It also addresses the imbalance of human resources between regions and relieves the strain that overcrowding has on provincial and central hospitals.

Doctors who have just graduated or those working outside the medical profession are eligible for the project.

About 500 doctors are expected to be sent to the localities between 2013 and 2016. Male doctors are asked to work for at least five years and female four years.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Politburo member To Huy Rua, who is also Secretary of the Party Central Committee and head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Organisation, praised the healthcare sector’s practical action and the young doctors involved in the project for their charitable spirit.

The project demonstrates the due attention of the Party and State to the people’s health, he said.

He suggested the ministry’s leaders and the project’s steering committee work closely with local party committees in selecting locations and allocating doctors.

The ministry should partner with the Interior Ministry, cities and provinces to ensure benefits for the volunteers.

As reported, there is a serious shortage of doctors in deprived districts, with only six or seven doctors working in district-level hospitals, and the quality of healthcare services remains poor.

Source: VNA