In Điện Biên, where vast territories present difficult transport conditions, the new policy is expected to generate added motivation for healthcare personnel directly caring for community health to remain committed to the grassroots level, contributing to elevating primary healthcare efficiency for residents.

Sùng Thị Nga from Ham Xoong village, Nà Bủng commune, has spent nearly 8 years committed to her role as a village birth attendant. Beyond delivering babies for pregnant women, Nga handles maternal healthcare during pregnancy, disseminates and guides contraceptive methods, and distributes and instructs the use of condoms and oral contraceptive pills per Ministry of Health regulations, while setting aside family chores to support emergency patient transfers during dangerous complications.

Despite arduous duties, vast territories, and difficult transport routes, monthly allowance levels for village birth attendants currently stand at merely 0.3 times the base salary, equivalent to roughly VND 700,000. Sùng Thị Nga shared that village delivery work presents numerous hardships, as night calls demand difficult schedule adjustments with young children, while rainy weather renders roads even more treacherous, yet out of responsibility to villagers, she continues striving to stay committed to the role.

Điện Biên province currently counts 114 village birth attendants. Compared to Provincial People’s Council Resolution No.24/2020/NQ-HĐND dated July 15, 2020, Government Decree No.192/2026/NĐ-CP dated May 30, 2026, significantly increased monthly support levels for village birth attendant forces, specifically raising monthly support from 0.3 to 0.7 times the base salary across 38 difficult-condition communes, and from 0.3 to 0.5 times the base salary across 7 remaining communes.

Within the grassroots-level healthcare system, village birth attendants hold crucial roles in providing primary healthcare to residents in difficult areas. Every mountain pass crossed, stream navigated to visit pregnant women, reproductive healthcare dissemination session, or effort urging mothers to visit medical facilities serves as a vital link mitigating maternal risks. Therefore, adjusting support levels aims not only to improve incomes, but also to guarantee greater alignment between policy regimes and job demands, working conditions, and responsibilities assumed by grassroots-level healthcare personnel.

Over the long term, the new policy is expected to create added motivation for village birth attendants to remain committed to the grassroots level, mitigating personnel shortages in difficult areas. As the healthcare sector’s “extended arm” receives additional resources, community-level maternal and child healthcare networks will be strengthened, narrowing healthcare access gaps between mountainous and advantageous regions while elevating primary healthcare quality for residents.

For 689 village healthcare workers across the province, Decree No.192/2026/NĐ-CP continues adjusting policies toward greater alignment with specific local characteristics, raising monthly support levels from 0.5 to 0.7 times the base salary in difficult-condition communes. This adjustment reflects a resource prioritization direction dedicated to challenging areas, ensuring residents access healthcare services right where they live.

Currently, the Department of Health advises the Provincial People’s Committee on formulating a Provincial People’s Council Resolution specifying content within its authority to deploy policies under Decree No.192/2026/NĐ-CP consistently across the province. To establish bases for drafting and finalizing dossiers, the Department of Health requested commune and ward People’s Committees to supply data regarding quantities and assignment demands for village, hamlet, and residential group healthcare workers alongside village birth attendants, aiming to finalize the draft resolution and gather feedback from departments, sectors, mass organizations, and residents prior to submitting it to competent authorities for consideration and approval.

Phạm Giang Nam, Director of the Department of Health, noted that executing Decree No.192 carries major significance in improving work income to create motivation, encourage, and inspire village healthcare workers and birth attendants to feel reassured, stay committed, and show responsibility toward grassroots-level healthcare, particularly in remote, ethnic minority, and especially difficult socio-economic areas. He added that the policy contributes to elevating healthcare talent attraction and retention, improving working conditions, elevating medical examination and primary healthcare quality, while serving as a crucial solution to consolidate grassroots-level healthcare operations, strengthen disease prevention capacities, guarantee social security, and better satisfy public healthcare demands.

Practical reality demonstrates that a strong healthcare system is built not only from physical infrastructure and equipment, but also from cadres clinging to the grassroots level daily to bring healthcare services closer to residents. Decree No.192/2026/NĐ-CP stands as a step materializing State care for grassroots-level healthcare forces, consolidating primary healthcare foundations and creating motivation for crucial grassroots-level links to continue promoting their roles and responsibilities for public health.