Can you quit your job while on workers comp

The Ministry of Health (MOH) conducted an inspection campaign to assess the quality of hospitals and a survey to assess patients’ satisfaction about service quality.

The survey was conducted online, with anonymity guaranteed.

At Bach Mai Hospital, 74 percent of inpatients said they were satisfied about the hospital’s services, while the figure is 82 percent for outpatients.

The satisfaction of medical workers about the hospital was low, just 3.5/5, while it was above 4 in previous years.

As many as 2, 014 out 4,300 people participated in the survey and 15 percent said they were fully satisfied about the hospital, while 51 percent were generally satisfied about the hospital’s leaders. Sixty three percent said they wanted to work there for a long time, while 70 percent proposed increasing wages.

More than 100 workers complained that they were overloaded because of the unreasonable working regime with no time off to compensate for days on duty, and that they were subject to high pressure, low income and too many exams for ranking. They also cited many other problems, such as the lack of workers and lack of equipment, including gloves. They want more fair punishment and more compliments, more encouragement, and workers’ opinions heard.

“We are facing serious difficulties. We work under pressure, while the income is low. Many good doctors and nurses have left because the pressure has become unbearable. We are very tired, and we stay just because of the word ‘Bach Mai’,” a worker wrote.

“We have a high number of working hours daily, while the income is too low. Under current laws, every worker has eight working hours a day, but we work at least 10 hours a day,” another worker wrote.

Reshuffling

An officer of the administration division of Bach Mai Hospital commented that the fact that 15 percent of workers feeling satisfied working in such an environment with high pressure is a ‘fairly high figure’.

“As explained by MOH, ‘fully satisfied’ means that workers don’t complain about anything and all their demands can be met. This is really difficult,” he said.

“In the context of revenue decrease of VND2 trillion, high pressure, 50 percent income decrease, hard work and Covid-19, this figure is quite understandable,” he said.

The officer went on to say that leaders of the hospital and all department heads fulfilled their tasks last year in very difficult conditions amid the pandemic and the requirements to improve service quality.

The hospital has a comprehensive healthcare regime, under which every patient has one bed and nurses have to wash patients’ hairs and clean the potty, works they did not have to do in the past.

Bach Mai became the first public hospital in Vietnam following the autonomy policy in 2020 which means that it can no longer receive funding from the State and has to cover its own expenses.

Bach Mai became the first public hospital in Vietnam following the autonomy policy in 2020 which means that it can no longer receive funding from the State and has to cover its own expenses.

The leaders of the hospital have been making every effort to improve service quality to increase patient satisfaction. It needs to employ more workers, but it cannot because of limited financial capability. As a result, medical workers have had to undertake more work and one nurse has to take care of many patients.

Reshuffling to improve service quality and bring the highest possible satisfaction to patients is what the hospital must do to exist in an autonomy regime. However, reshuffling is never easy and needs serious measures.

Because patients queue up at 3-4 am to register for health examinations, the hospital’s leaders asked the workers of some departments to begin their working shift at 5 am.

Heads of departments also have to take higher responsibility. Only when their departments are recognized as excellently fulfilling tasks will they be recognized as excellent workers.

The hospital has also imposed strict punishments on medical workers who have bad attitudes towards patients and their relatives. If patients make complaints, the cases will be considered and judged by a disciplinary committee. The new regulations have put pressure on workers.

“What we need to do now is provide best services and win patients’ satisfaction. If so, we will have more patients, and thus higher income. We will continue to ask to remove the bottlenecks in the financial mechanism,” he said.

What does the hospital say?

Asked about the mass resignation of 221 workers, including 28 doctors, the Bach Mai Hospital director said it was a normal phenomenon in the labor market. Many private hospitals have been set up and workers now have many choices for jobs.

He affirmed that the hospital has recruited a high number of highly qualified workers, including professors, associate professors, practitioners with doctorates, and residents.

The hospital also signed labor contracts with nurses who experienced refresher training courses in 2019.

“Bach Mai has nearly 1,000 professors, associate professors and practitioners with doctorates, so the departure of 28 practitioners will not affect the operation of the hospital,” Tuan said.

Thuy Hanh

The Vietnamese labor market has been heavily affected since the third outbreak of COVID-19, with nearly 1.1 million working-age people out of work in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 12,100 people year-on-year, a press conference was told last week.

Pham Hoai Nam, director of the Department of Population and Labor Statistics under the General Statistics Office (GSO), released the figures at the conference held by the GSO in Hanoi regarding the employment situation on Friday.

However, compared to the previous quarter, the number of jobless working-age people reduced by 137,000, Nam added.

The working-age unemployment rate was 2.42 percent in the first three months of this year, up 0.08 percentage points from the same period last year, the GSO reported.

The nationwide workforce aged 15 and over decreased by 1.1 million people from the previous quarter and 180,900 people year-on-year, according to the agency.

As reported at the press briefing, 9.1 million workers aged 15 and over have been suffering from the impacts of COVID-19.

Between January and March, 540,000 people lost their jobs, 2.8 million people suspended their business activities, 3.1 million were underemployed or laid off, and 6.5 million people saw their income reduced because of the pandemic.

By economic sector, those suffering the least from COVID-19 were agriculture, forestry and fisheries, with only 7.5 percent of their workers affected.

Meanwhile, the ratios of affected workers in the industry-construction and service sectors were 16.5 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively.

The third quarter also saw 971,400 people become underemployed, an increase of 143,200 people from the previous quarter and 78,700 people versus the same period last year.

The overall underemployment rate of working-age workers in the period was 2.2 percent.

By sector, the rates of 3.88 percent, 1.51 percent, and 1.76 percent were recorded in agroforestry and fishery, industry-construction, and service, respectively.

The third outbreak of COVID-19 has undermined the recovery of the labor market achieved in the second half of 2020, causing many people, especially women, to work as non-official workers, the press conference was told.

A total of 910 community cases have been recorded since the third wave started hitting Vietnam in late January.

The average monthly income of laborers in the first quarter was reported at VND6.3 million (US$273), marking the increases of VND339,000 ($14.6) and VND106,000 ($4.6) from the previous quarter and the same period of last year, respectively.

The above data reflects the hefty difficulties facing the job market in particular and the economy in general, challenging the efforts to achieve the government’s dual goal of containing the pandemic and boosting economic recovery, Nam told the conference.

The GSO has proposed the government and agencies concerned consider the issuance of ‘vaccine passports’ and develop necessary criteria for opening international tourism to help revive the employment market.

It is essential to introduce specific policies to attract 3.5 million self-employed agricultural workers to participate in the labor market in order to improve productivity and livelihoods, the GSO suggested.

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The opening ceremony of Bel Ga Tay Ninh Hi-Tech Poultry Hatchery

Bel Ga is a Belgium market leader with more than 80 years of experience in producing premium day-old chicks in Europe. Established in Vietnam since 2013, Bel Ga currently has 4 hatcheries and 2 incubation factories with a modern self-contained farming process according to GlobalGAP standards, providing more than 35 million premium day-old chicks for Vietnamese and Cambodian markets every year.

Possessing strong potentials and unique experiences and visions, in September 2017, Bel Ga and De Heus LLC, Hung Nhon Group, Koyu Unitek Company and partners were successful in building the value chain of clean chicken with traceability according to GlobalGAP standards, ISO 22000 that meets conditions to export clean chicken products to the Japanese market – one of the most demanding markets in the world.

Following the success of Bel Ga Incubation Factory in Lam Dong Province, Bel Ga Joint Stock Company continues to invest in building the second Bel Ga High-tech Hatchery in Tay Ninh Province – the province belongs to the key economic region of the South Vietnam, with the advantage of a temperate climate, relatively flat topography, and undeniable potential for comprehensive development in agriculture, industry and construction.

Mr. Kris Van Daele – General Director of Bel Ga Vietnam and Cambodia, said that this position contributes to improving the quality of broilers, helping to reduce the pressure on chicks due to long-distance transport, because from now on, the time of transporting chickens to the Mekong Delta areas is only about 4-5 hours and to Cambodia is only in 1 hour. In addition, the distance from Tay Ninh to Ho Chi Minh City is also very short, so it is possible to transport chickens by air to the North in the fastest way, this is the premise for Bel Ga development in the North of Vietnam, as well as ensuring providing a source of good quality chicken seed in the chain of the parties in the North of Vietnam.

Bel Ga Tay Ninh Poultry Incubation Factory has a total investment of VND200 billion, with a total area of ​​15,000sq.m and the design capacity of over 19 million chicks per year in the phase I and will expand the capacity up to 38,4 million chicks per year in the phase II.

The main products of the factory are day-old chicks and day-old layers, of the best quality to meet the demand of famers in Vietnamese and Cambodian markets.

Bel Ga breeders are sourced from the world’s leading breeding companies, Aviagen and Hendrix Genetics, which are hatched using the most advanced modern European technology. Bel Ga Tay Ninh factory is considered as a unique factory model with the application of many advances in technical innovations of construction design, including facilities for farms and hatcheries which meets the European standards, thanks to the support of leading experts and technicians in the world.

All technologies used in the factory are applied management techniques that uses information technology systems to ensure the efficiency and accuracy of information in the production process.

The day-old-chicks products of Bel Ga Tay Ninh will ensure the highest standards according to GlobalGAP standards through the management and strict control of biosafety in livestock and the production, quality monitoring of incubation eggs and GP farms with low stocking densities, combined with effective temperature control through modern incubation machines helpful in the creation of optimal environment to ensure that the best 1-day-old chicks are always produced and traceable throughout the entire production chain.

At the grand opening ceremony of Bel Ga Tay Ninh High-Tech Hatchery, Bel Ga Company, De Heus Group, Hung Nhon Group contributed VND500 million to Covid-19 prevention fund in Tay Ninh Province; donated 01 ambulance worth VND1 billion to Tay Ninh Young Business Association and donated VND300 million to the Fund for the Poor of Trang Bang Town to build “Dai Doan Ket” House for families in extremely difficult circumstances. The total sponsorship value is VND1.8 billion.

In recent years, Vietnam’s poultry production has made great leaps in both productivity and product quality. Fully complying with the guidelines of the government and ministries as well as orientations of provinces, the Bel Ga Tay Ninh Poultry Incubation Factory was built, promising to become a strategic knot, contributing to the development of the value chain in livestock production of high-quality breeds, clean meat production with traceability and export standards, bringing many benefits to Vietnamese farmers and consumers.

In Tay Ninh Province, Bel Ga Company, De Heus Group, Hung Nhon Group and strategic partners have selected a convenient location in Tan Hoi Commune, Tan Chau District and Phuoc Binh Commune, Trang Bang District to continue investing in building 1 agricultural complex of hi-tech application, including 2 parent chicken farms (with a capacity of 25 million eggs / year), 250 safe broiler farms (with a capacity of 25 million broilers / year), and a complex of factories producing and processing high quality agricultural products in a closed chain. The total investment for these projects is expected to be about US$141.5 million (equivalent about VND3.325 trillion).

The entire breeding process at the project will be operated and monitored closely according to the European standards to help control the quality of livestock in the area, optimize livestock performance, and reduce product costs and achieve high economic efficiency. The project is equipped with a system of Europe’s leading automatic production lines, which are strictly operated and supervised by international experts.

Once completed, the project will become a high-tech application center in broiler farming for export in a closed chain, including Supply of broilers, broiler rearing, slaughtering, and trading meat products. Top quality chicken in Vietnam, with outstanding economic efficiency, ensuring food safety and hygiene, friendly with the environment according to ISO, HACCP and other international specialized standards. The project also creates job opportunities for about 350-500 local workers and transfer of advanced breeding technology to hundreds of workers, contributing to promoting the development of high-tech agriculture in the locality.

The inauguration of Bel Ga Tay Ninh High-Tech Poultry Incubation Factory and investment cooperation of a hi-tech agricultural complex in Tay Ninh will help Belga Company, De Heus Group and Hung Nhon Group promote fully the available strengths of the units, expand and perfect the high-tech livestock chain in accordance with the orientation of the development of the agricultural economy with the application of modern technologies, which is being specially concerned by the government and ministries. At the same time, it reaffirms the long-term vision of Bel Ga Company, De Heus Group, Hung Nhon Group and partners in the mission of contributing to the development of a sustainable and prosperous Vietnamese agricultural sector, improving the quality, added value and competitiveness of agricultural products; environmental and ecological protection; improve incomes for people in rural areas; ensure food security and national defense security in Vietnam; contribute to improving the position of Vietnam’s livestock industry, creating high-value products that are competitive in the international market.

PV

Le Tri Thanh, Quang Nam chairman, said Sunday that the central province has sent a draft plan to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on welcoming international tourists.

If approved, Quang Nam will become the first province in the country to accept visitors with the so-called Covid-19 vaccine passports.

The plan will have visitors entering Vietnam on tours organized by international travel agencies. Each visitor should have a vaccine passport (documented proof of vaccination) and a certificate from medical agencies showing negative Covid-19 test results.

“We plan to welcome South Korean visitors in the first phase. We will learn from the experience, and in the second phase, we can open to more markets,” Thanh said.

The group of tourists will go on a charter flight to the Chu Lai Airport and be taken straight to resorts in Duy Xuyen District or Nui Thanh District for 5-10 days, not to quarantine facilities.

Chu Lai is slated to become an international airport and be eligible to add necessary equipment to receive charter flights.

Nguyen Thanh Hong, Director of the Quang Nam Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the two resorts were isolated and quite far from residential areas. The staff at these two resorts will be Covid-19 vaccinated and would follow and apply all pandemic prevention measures, he/she said.

Nguyen Van, deputy director of the provincial health department, said the plan to welcome international visitors has been carefully prepared.

“Throughout the transportation process, the visitors will be required to stay in the car with no stops on the way. The pandemic prevention measures at the accommodations will be applied just like a quarantine center.”

On April 15, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung had said that the ministry plans to reopen international tourism under a roadmap in which the pilot phase from July 2021 to September 2021 will focus on beach tourism and golf tourism in Quang Nam for visitors from the South Korean market.

The ministry’s studies have found that the south of Hoi An area and Chu Lai Airport in Quang Nam Province meet the requirements of safety, transport infrastructure and tourism services as an area for the pilot phase.

The ministry has said that in order to forward the proposal to the prime minister, the Quang Nam administration must review facilities, equipment, human resources and safety requirements; and prepare an official document confirming the province’s readiness to coordinate with the ministry in implementing the plan.

Due to the closure of the borders as a pandemic safety measure, the number of international visitors to Vietnam was just 3.7 million in 2020, down 80 over 2019.

Vietnam stopped all international commercial flights in March 2020. International visitors coming into the country since are mainly experts, high-tech workers, investors and foreigners working on projects in Vietnam.

“We are researching and preparing step by step the pilot selection of a number of markets to apply vaccine passports, welcoming visitors while ensuring safety amid the pandemic,” Hung said.

He also said that his ministry wants the government to apply the vaccine passport policy soon, because it would be key to opening the door for international visitors.