Human resources for commune health centers as per national standards : the case of Vietnam

Vietnam is among a few countries which have established a model of Commune Health Centers (CHCs) to serve primary health care for all people. Using quota sampling technique, 30 CHCs per each among nine provinces nationwide were equally selected for data collection to assess human resources for CHCs as national standards in Vietnam. A total of 239 CHCs finally completed the survey. Overall, the average number of Health Care Workers (HCWs) in each CHC was 6.3 ± 1.7, which met the national standards (at least five HCWs per CHC). However, only 24.4% of CHCs had 5 required job positions, and 59.7% of CHCs had at least one doctor. These shortages were more emerging in mountainous and remote areas. Further, mountainous and remote areas have been underrepresented of female HCWs, as compared to those in rural and urban areas. Our data provide a quite strong case for policy makers and health managers to improve human resources structure for CHCs. Keywords: Human resources for health (HRH); Commune health center (CHC); Community health services; Healthcare workers; National standards; Vietnam. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Huy Nguyen” is provided in this record*