The HCM City People's Council has approved a resolution introducing incentives to recruit and retain medical professionals at health stations in communes, wards and special administrative zones.
Under the policy, newly recruited doctors with residency training, master's degrees, first-level specialist qualifications or higher credentials will receive a one-off payment equivalent to 80 times the Region I monthly minimum wage.
Other eligible doctors will receive 40 times the minimum wage, with payments made after their recruitment takes effect and they begin providing medical services at health stations.
To qualify, doctors must be recruited into the public healthcare system for the first time after the resolution takes effect and commit to working at a health station for at least five years.
The incentives will not apply to doctors transferred from other public institutions or those previously employed in eligible positions who leave and are subsequently rehired.
Each health station can recruit doctors under the scheme only until it reaches five doctors. Facilities already employing five or more doctors will not qualify.
The policy is intended to direct funding towards understaffed facilities rather than provide incentives to all newly recruited doctors.
Doctors assigned to Thanh An Island Commune Health Station will receive incentives 1.2 times the standard rate, while those working at Con Dao Special Zone Health Station will receive 1.5 times the standard rate.
For the highest-qualified group, this means payments equivalent to 96 months of the Region I minimum wage in Thanh An and 120 months in Con Dao. The corresponding rates for other eligible doctors are 48 and 60 months.
Based on the Region I monthly minimum wage of more than VND 5.3 million, standard one-off incentives range from VND 212 million (USD 8,100) to VND 424 million (USD 16,200).
The maximum payment rises to more than VND 509 million (USD 19,400) in Thanh An and VND 637 million (USD 24,300) in Con Dao.
HCM City's primary healthcare network currently comprises 168 health stations and 296 satellite facilities. Following administrative restructuring, 443 former health stations were consolidated into 168 stations serving the city's new commune-level administrative units.
When the policy was drafted, the network employed 1,415 doctors, including 1,073 with medical practice licences, accounting for 75.8 per cent. The remaining 342 doctors, or 24.2 per cent, had not yet obtained licences.