Doctor Nguyen Chien Quyet (middle) and his colleagues perform endoscopic surgery (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – Unlike many
who want to work in like , Nguyen Chien Quyet,
from the northern province of Hung Yen, chose to work in northern mountainous
areas to help the disadvantaged people living there.
“I just think that it will be difficult for
me to wholeheartedly care for people in mountainous regions once I’m married,”
he said.
Three years ago when he was a final-year
student, he heard about a project sending doctors to disadvantaged areas,
including mountainous regions, border areas and islands. After nights agonising
over his decision, he decided to sign up after getting approval from his
relatives.
Quyet was among the first seven doctors
chosen to go to poor districts in northern Lao Cai, Son La, Bac Kan and Dien
Bien provinces.
After being trained for two years as a
surgeon, the 28-year-old was assigned to Bac Ha General Hospital in the
northern mountainous province of Lao Cai in July this year.
Spanning 68,000sq.m, Bac Ha has a population of about 64,000 people, with ethnic minorities
making up 85 percent of the population.
The district struggles to meet demand for
health care in the area, with just 40 doctors working in the district, meaning
on average 6.6 doctors care for every 10,000 residents. The difficult terrain
makes treatment even harder.
Nguyen Nhu Tuan, deputy director of Bac Ha
General Hospital, said despite being located in a mountainous district, the
hospital treated people from three districts, namely Bac Ha, Xin Man and Si Ma
Cai. As a result, it was always packed with patients.
The surgery department, which he leads, is
often overloaded.
The department has 50 beds but there are
only two surgeons and because the other surgeon is on a training programme, he
had to work alone.
“There are days, I have to perform 4-6
surgeries. I have to conduct one operation after the other despite the fact
that I feel tired. My legs feel numb after standing for such a long time,” Tuan
told online plus newspaper.
Tuan said he believed that Quyet would
share his burden and help the department deal with cases that used to be
transferred to central hospitals.
“The hospital has been equipped with
machines for endoscopic surgery for the past three years but they are rarely
used due to a lack of doctors. We’re sure that more surgeries will be conducted
with these facilities,” he said.
Nguyen Kim Phuong, director of the
hospital, said despite being upgraded, the hospital was always short of
doctors.
“This is the first time in a decade the
hospital has received a young doctor to work,” he said, adding that he hoped
that Quyet could help the hospital use more advanced technology.
Recalling his first days at Bac Ha
Hospital, Quyet said: “It rained all day and night in the first week, deepening
the nostalgia in my mind. The change in working environment and the quiet in Bac
Ha District also made me feel uneasy.”
Quyet said he barely left the hospital in
the first week. In the morning, he examined patients and conducted surgeries in
the afternoon. In the evening he wandered around patient’s rooms.
“As I live alone and I’m not used to
everything here, I went to patients’ rooms to chat with them to ease my
loneliness and monitor their condition,” he said.
Before long he started feeling at home,
with work keeping him busy all day with examinations and surgery, with an
average day featuring up to four surgeries.
“I thought life would be slower in a
mountainous area. Unbelievably, time passes quickly at my pace of work.
Everything seems to have happened so fast, but I’ve only been here two months,”
he said.
Quyet said he would never forget the first
endoscopic surgery on Sung Seo Sau, a Mong ethnic person from Bac Ha district’s
Nam Mon commune.
At about 5:30pm, a staff member rushed to
his room announcing that a patient suffering appendicitis needed surgery
immediately.
He saw the middle-aged man lying on bed
with his arms clutching his abdomen, with his mouth tightly shut as if he was
trying to withstand the pain. After examining the patient, Quyet operated on
him, finishing in about 40 minutes.
Sung Seo Ky’s, the patient’s son, said he
was surprised by the way the doctor performed the surgery.
“I have met some people with
appendicitis but the way doctors conduct surgery for my father is unusual,” he
said.
Others who had undergone the procedure were
left with a long abdominal scar but miraculously, Sau was left with just three
spots, Ky said.
Pham Van Tac, head of the Ministry of
Health’s Organisation and Personnel Department, said the project sending young
doctors to poor districts and island areas was approved by the Ministry of
Health in March 2013.
It aims to help the needy access better
medical services, reduce unnecessary transfers of patients to higher-level
hospitals and ease overloading at central hospitals.
Under the project, young doctors who
perform well in medical universities and volunteer to join will be chosen.
After being trained for two years in a
speciality, the male ones will be taken to districts hospital in poor areas for
three years, and female doctors for two years.
It is expected that between 300 and 500
doctors will be sent to disadvantaged areas to help alleviate the shortage in
human resources.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
