Success does not lie in results but in efforts

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

In particular, ST25 rice was sold for more than $1,000 per ton and Jasmine rice for $600 per ton.

The Vietnam National Seed Group (Vinaseed) has also inked many contracts to export rice to Australia, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic at high prices.

The first batch of Vietnamese rice exported in 2021 was 1,600 tons of Trung An High-tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company. Its two types of Jasmine rice were sold for $680 and $750 per ton.

Pham Thai Binh, general director of Trung An, told VietNamNet that the company has changed its policy: producing and exporting high quality rice only.

Vietnam was known for exporting low-grade, low-priced rice for the past 30 years. Now, Vietnamese firms export high-quality rice for high prices. Vietnam is also the producer of ST25, the most delicious rice product in the world.

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh, after more than 30 years of conquering the world rice market, Vietnam is no longer inferior to others in terms of the quality and price of its exported rice. The country currently has many valuable rice varieties and the price for Vietnamese rice is sometimes higher than that of Thailand and India.

Doanh said that five to six years ago Vietnam had 35-40% of high-quality rice varieties, but now the ratio is 75-80%. As the quality of rice has increased, the export price has risen very quickly. The rice industry has been successfully restructured in recent years, although the rice cultivation area has been reduced.

Recently, many people were “startled” by the information that Vietnam imported rice from India. But for experts, this is ‘the new normal’ of Vietnamese rice. Vietnam lacks and has to import low-grade rice to process cattle-feed as the proportion of high-grade rice varieties is overwhelming.

The Bangkok Post on January 25 commented that this is “Vietnam’s wise rice strategy”. Vietnam chose to import Indian rice at lower prices to meet domestic demand, while focusing on producing high-quality rice for export. The production of high-quality rice is on the right track with the world, taking advantage of export opportunities to the EU when the EVFTA went into effect.

Dr. Dang Kim Son, former director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, acknowledged that rice is the most successful export commodity in recent years. From exporting 1 million tons per year, Vietnam has become the world’s leading rice exporter. If in the past, the price for Vietnamese rice was much lower than the world rice price, especially Thai rice, now it is equal or even higher.

Vietnamese rice holds No. 1 position in world

In mid-2018, when the price Vietnamese rice surpassed Thailand’s, many people called it a “miracle” because, for many years, Vietnamese rice had been inferior to Thai and Indian rice in both quantity and quality.

As a result, the position of Vietnamese rice has changed. In 2020, Vietnam overtook Thailand to become the world’s second rice exporting country, with 6.15 million tons, earning $3.07 billion. Notably, the export volume decreased by about 3.5% but turnover increased by 9.3%.

Vietnamese rice has surpassed both Thailand and India to take the number one spot in the world in terms of selling price. In 2020, with an average export price of $499 per ton, an increase of 13.3% compared to 2019, Vietnamese rice farmers earned high profits. It is estimated that with an output of about 7 million tons per hectare, farmers can earn from VND65-VND70 million per hectare, while the cost is only about VND16-VND17 million per hectare. It means a profit of 70%, equivalent to about VND50 million per hectare.

In early 2021, Vietnamese rice maintained its top position in price. On March 25, the price for Vietnam’s 5% broken rice increased to $515-520 per ton, compared to $500-$518 per ton for Thai rice and $398-403 per ton for Indian rice of the same kind. In January 2021, Vietnam’s rice export price hit $551.7 per ton.

‘Heavenly pearls’

According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), rice exports in 2021 will be very positive. The Asian rice market started to heat up again as customers were rushing to buy. Many countries have great demand for fragrant rice and sticky rice, which are an advantageous commodity of Vietnam. Vietnam’s export outlook is wide open thanks to opportunities from a number of markets that have signed free trade agreements (FTA) with Vietnam. In particular, under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Vietnam has a quota of 80,000 tons of rice per year with 0% tax.

However, Pham Thai Binh said that to ensure a stable future for Vietnam’s rice export, it is necessary to strengthen the link between enterprises and farmers to improve quality of rice. Local governments need to find solutions to promote these links. This is a prerequisite for enterprises and farmers to jointly produce rice for export to serve various needs of the international market.

Agricultural expert Hoang Trong Thuy said that rice trading firms should keep shifting the structure of exported rice to high value-added types because if Vietnam produces low-grade rice, it will not be able to compete with India and Pakistan. Investing in the production of high-quality rice will help increase export value and enable Vietnamese rice to enter big markets such as Japan, Korea, and the EU.

Tam An

The vaccinated people are frontline medical workers, and members of anti-coronavirus community groups and the steering committees on COVID-19 prevention and control, alongside police and armed forces.

Hai Phong city has finalized the first vaccination phase, while the provinces of Quang Ninh and Hai Duong are redoubling efforts to complete the first drive.

Five provinces, including Bac Ninh, Ha Tinh, Cao Bang, Phu Yen and Bac Giang

According to the Ministry of Health, a 39-year-old Vietnamese citizen who entered Da Nang Airport from Japan was diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the morning of April 19.

The patient is being currently isolated for treatment at Da Nang Lung Hospital after his test result was confirmed positive for the virus on April 17.

The new patient has raised the national count to 2,785, including 1,179 imported cases.

So far, the nation has seen 2,475 recoveries from the coronavirus disease, while the death toll remains at 35.

Among patients still under treatment, a total of 45 have tested negative for the novel coronavirus once, with the majority giving negative results for many times.

VOV

Camellia Flosculora,  a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae is found at Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park in the central highlands Lâm Đồng Province by a group of Vietnamese and international scientists and researchers. — Photo courtesy of Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park

LÂM ĐỒNG — Four new species of camellia (a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae) and Begonia (a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family of Begoniaceae) – have been found in Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park in Lâm Đồng Province by a group of Vietnamese and international scientists and researchers.

Dr Lê Văn Hương, director of the park, told Việt Nam News that reports of the new four plants – including two camellia species ( Camellia Flosculora and Camellia bidoupensis ) and two begonia species ( begonia hongiaoensis and begonia lamdongiana ) – have been recently published by Phytotaxa (a botany journal); Brittonia (a peer-reviewed botanical journal) and International Camellia Society .

Camellia bidoupensis, a camellia species, is reported as a new species found at Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park. — Photo courtesy of Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park

Hương said the discoveries were thanks to the great efforts made by researchers and scientists during field surveys at the park.

He said the results once again prove the rich biodiversity of the park and the importance of international co-operation in research on finding new species.

The four new species were found at the park during field surveys by scientists from the Southern Institute of Ecology, the Đà Lạt University, the VNU University of Science, Dr Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Centre (KBCC), a non-governmental organisation for tropical plant conservation in Taiwan, and the park in the 2018-20 period.

Several new or newly recorded species were found in recent investigations in the park under the ‘Botanical survey in Lang Biang Plateau’, that helped increase the inventory of botanical diversity of Việt Nam.

At least 90 begonia species were reported in Việt Nam, and only three Begonia species had been found in Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park .

Begonia hongiaoensis (a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family of Begoniaceae) was recently reported as a new species found in Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park. Photo courtesy of Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park

It is clear that this is an underestimation because over three begonias have been recorded based on field surveys. Due to the vast land area of the forest, more new begonias could be expected once more areas within the National Park are explored botanically, reports said.

Begonia lamdongiana is a new species that was found by group of Vietnamese and international scientists and researchers in Lâm Đồng Province. — Photo courtesy of Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park

The Bidoup-Núi Bà National Park, which covers roughly 70,000 hectares, 91 per cent of which is primary forest, is rich in flora and fauna.

About 2,075 species of flora – one-sixth of Việt Nam’s total – have been found here, while 301 bird species (30 per cent of all birds in the country) have also been spotted.

Hương said the newest camellia (Polyspora huongiana), discovered in 2012 by biologists from both Việt Nam and the Royal Botanic Garden Australia, was named after him for his scientific contributions to conservation.

The park has been co-operating with the World Bank (WB), the Asia Development Bank (ADB), JICA, USAID, and the German International Co-operation Agency (GIZ) in different programmes focusing on the research and protection of flora and fauna and has supported sustainable livelihoods for ethnic groups. —VNS