Doctors and nurses inside a Covid-19 intensive care unit in
HCMC's Thu Duc City, July 19, 2021.Photo by VnExpress/Thanh Nguyen

Medical staff voluntarily quitting their positions and failing to perform their assigned tasks may lose their right to practice.

The Ministry of Health demanded Monday that health departments across the country ensure enough human resources at medical examination and treatment facilities and arrange backup teams should medics contract Covid-19 and be isolated.

Doctors and nurses who have made contributions to epidemic prevention and control, as well as medical examination and treatment activities, should be praised and rewarded.

However, "for those voluntarily quitting or violating regulations on professional ethics, the ministry would consider administrative discipline or deprive them of the right to use their practicing certificates," it said.

In early August, the Health Ministry had ordered localities to ensure regular medical examination and treatment in the context of the growing Covid-19 outbreak.

According to the ministry, recently, there have been cases in which "medical staff voluntarily quit their positions and failed to fully perform their assigned responsibilities and tasks."

For now, Vietnam has yet to put its fourth Covid-19 wave that emerged over four months ago under control.

Since the pandemic began until Aug. 9, more than 2,300 medical workers in Vietnam have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to the National Union of Health Workers.

Of these, three had lost their lives.

Throughout the four waves, doctors, nurses, and medical students have not just stopped at fighting the pandemic where they stay but volunteered to go all the way to where the outbreak was the most complicated.

For the ongoing wave, more than 16,000 medics from the north and central region have volunteered to fight Covid-19 in the south, which is hardest hit.

Aside from the frequent risk of infection, they are put under lots of pressure as the number of patients has escalated quickly in a short period of time and many are critical.

So far in the ongoing wave, 532,491 community cases have been recorded and 13,350 have died.

Experts have said it is necessary to have preferential policies for frontline health workers including allowances for toxicity exposure and high work intensity.