HCM City: Metro line 3A design submitted for approval

The management board of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway has submitted a design for the construction of the city’s metro line 3A project linking the Ben Thanh market and Tan Kien depot.

Metro line 3A will start from the Mien Tay (Western) Coach Station in Binh Tan district and end at the 20.1-hectare Tan Kien deport in Binh Chanh district.

The 10km metro line, including a 0.65-km underground section, will have seven stations.

Under the city’s transportation plan by 2020 with a vision beyond 2020, HCM City will have eight metro lines, including five elevated ones.

The building of metro line 1 from the Ben Thanh market to Suoi Tien Park and line 2 from Ben Thanh to Tham Luong are underway. The remaining are inviting for investment or on design process.

Metro line 1 is expected to be operational in 2020.

Long An strives for 11.19 percent forest coverage

The southern province of Long An has set a target of reaching 11.19 percent in forest coverage by 2020.

Director of the local Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Van Hoang said that the People’s Committee recently approved a project to plant scattered trees across the locality and another to plant protective forests at border areas and in Can Duoc and Can Giuoc districts.

Accordingly, from now to 2020, the province will plant 6.5 million trees with a total investment of 22 billion VND (968,000 USD).

As of late 2015, Long An has about 242 million scattered trees of all kinds, or 24,200 hectares. Up to 80 percent of them are managed by households and individuals and the remaining by organisations.

Phu Tho's modern tax management software wins praise

Phu Tho was recently praised for being the first province in the country to use software to manage payments of land tax and other fees and related processes.

The management software project became operational in 2008 in all 13 districts and cities of the province. This year the project helped the province to win the prestigious Hung Vuong Award, which honours outstanding scientific and technological products and projects.

Le Van Phuc, deputy head of the taxation department of the province, said ever since the project became operational, it has helped local inhabitants and organisations to pay their taxes and also local authorities to manage the tax and fee payment services better. The software has helped them to save a lot of time and to improve and simplify administrative procedures.

Following this success, the country's general department of taxation has proposed to implement this project nationwide.

Doan Xuan My, a local resident of Tien Cat Ward in Viet Tri City, said it used to take him 30 minutes to pay taxes and other fees earlier. Now, thanks to the new system, it takes him just five to 10 minutes.

Phu Tho Province's taxation department is so far the first unit in the country to use this software, and the only unit that prints tax receipts with it.

Central province police seize rare wood from truck

Thừa Thiên-Huế Province's traffic police said yesterday they had discovered a case of illegal transport of rare wood on National Highway 1.

On Wednesday night, the traffic police stopped a truck in the central province's Hương Thủy District and found 2cu.m of rare and protected wood in it.

The wood, scientifically known as afzelia xylocarpa, is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and in the Vietnamese Red Book of Endangered Species. There is a ban on its exploitation, trade or transportation in Viet Nam.

The wood was hidden under plastic boxes that contained empty beer bottles in the truck, the police said.

The truck was being driven by Le Chanh Huy, 39, a resident of Quảng Binh Province's Lệ Thủy District. Huy was unable to show any valid documents for the wood.

Police have seized the wood and are continuing their investigation.

Commonly known as doussie, afzelia xylocarpa is favoured for making furniture and as ship-building and housing material, thanks to its unique quality, colour and grain. The tree's bark is used in the tanning industry.

Two petrol stations penalised for cheating customers

Police and standards inspectors in Ha Noi yesterday found that two petrol stations were cheating customers with the help of an electronic chip.

The two petrol stations of the Hanoi Petrol Fuel Company (HFC) are located at 436 Tran Khat Chan Street and in Yen Vien Commune. They have been penalised for illegally using an electronic chip to defraud customers.

The two petrol stations used the chip to rig the display of fuel prices and quantities, market management team number 14 said.

The petrol station employees controlled the chip from a distance, enabling them to sell less gas than the quantity displayed on the pump screen, and to pocket about eight per cent of every sale.

"Using a standard measuring device, inspectors found that customers were getting only 19 litres of petrol while paying for 20 litres," the management team said.

The 2000sq.m petrol station in Yen Vien Commune was inaugurated in May 2015. The HFC estimated this station could sell 300cu.m of petrol every month.

According to the information published on the website of the company, it has 17 shops and 3,000 employees.

The company has sold 88,000cu.m of petrol so far this year. In November 2015, it was the only company in petrol business in the city to be honoured for its quality and prestige in the market.

The two fuel stations have been banned from operating till further investigations are completed.

PM orders ministries to prepare for Tet

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered government agencies and local authorities to start preparations to ensure social order and security, regulate commodity prices and maintain food safety during Tet.

The country's most celebrated traditional New Year Tet holiday will take place in early February next year.

The ministries of industry and trade and agriculture and rural development have been ordered to observe and regulate the market supply and demand for commodities, especially essential goods, before and during the holidays.

They have been told to maintain a stable supply and facilitate the distribution of goods across the country to cover even isolated mountainous areas and islands.

The trade industry will encourage and support businesses to participate in the country's price stabilisation programme, which aims to deliver basic and essential items to people at affordable prices.

Market watch forces have been ordered to carry out rigorous inspections and co-operate with the police in the country's fight against smuggled and fake goods. As in previous years, food safety during the traditional holidays will remain a top concern for government agencies.

Patients see improvement in bedside manner of doctors

There is satisfaction with the attitudes of medical workers toward patients five months after major HCM City public hospitals joined a national effort to improve hospital employees' behaviour, according to the Ministry of Health.

"Do nurses and doctors talk and behave nicely when they provide check-ups and treatment?" was one of the questions that Nguyen Tuan Hung, deputy head of the ministry's Personnel Department, asked patients at Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital, and Pediatrics Hospital No.1 in HCM City.

He was on a surprise visit last Friday to inquire about the attitudes of medical workers at public hospitals.

The almost unanimous answer to his question was "yes" albeit everyone was asked in public.

Most patients said they were received politely and given proper explanations instead of the curt or cold treatment they used to get.

Le Gia Lan, 27, of Tay Ninh Province took his five-month-old daughter to the Pediatrics Hospital No.1 for a digestive disorder.

Asked if he was satisfied with the attitudes of the nurses and doctors at the hospital, he said he had no complaints.

However, many patients said they still had to wait for many hours to see doctors.

It took Lan half a day for the check-up and tests.

"I came to the hospital very early in the morning and completed the procedures for hospitalisation at 1pm."

His daughter had to share a bed with another patient.

Nguyen Ngoc My, 22, of Tien Giang Province was pregnant but had to wait for two hours at the examination department of Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital.

She did not know when she would see a doctor.

Many pregnant patients said they had to wait three to four hours to be examined.

Pham Van Tac, head of the ministry's personnel department, said overloading worsened the quality of services at public hospitals.

Medical personnel do not have much time to provide careful consultation or advice since there are always hundreds of patients waiting for them, he said.

Reducing the number of patients is imperative for improving the quality of services and patients' satisfaction, he said.

The ministry has formed eight inspection teams, including one surprise inspection team led by Tac.

The teams will check implementation of a commitment signed by public hospitals nation-wide to improve medical workers' conduct towards patients.

In June Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien approved a plan with a slew of measures to improve patients' satisfaction.

Under the plan, all health workers, including hospital authorities, doctors, nurses, and security workers, have been trained to be courteous and solicitous with patients.

Ethnic groups important for national development

All Vietnamese ethnic groups have played an important role in the national course of socio-economic development and national defence and security, said Vuong Xuan Tinh, director of the Viet Nam Ethnology Institute, at a conference in the capital city yesterday.

A key objective of the meeting was to review achievements and limitations in ethnology studies in 2015 and lay out tasks for the next five years (2016-2020) and the vision by 2030.

Addressing the meeting, Tinh stressed the important values contributed by all Vietnamese ethnic groups in the course of national construction and defence in the past and the future.

"Industrialisation, modernisation and regional or international integration have deeply impacted all Vietnamese ethnic groups. But, their deep characteristics have been kept intact," said Tinh.

He said to uphold the cultural characteristics and the close relations between ethnic groups with the nation and nationality were the two most important spheres in the issue of nationality in Viet Nam.

Since 2012, studies on ethnic people have shown the return of ethnology and anthropology of ethnic groups in North America, Europe and particularly in Asia and in Viet Nam.

"Study on ethnic people in Viet Nam in the past 30 years has reflected basic relationships between nationality and the national policy, poverty alleviation, migration, ethnic groups and environment, cultural characteristics, cultural conservation and development," said Tinh.

He listed some of the main tasks for the Viet Nam Ethnology Institute in the years to come, including studies on the structure of ethnic groups in the new context of national industrialisation and modernisation as well as deep international integration.

As Viet Nam continues to urbanise rapidly, adequate supply of affordable housing will be integral to achieving national development targets and enabling the country to maintain a high rate of growth, with cities contributing a growing share of jobs and GDP, according to World Bank.

A bank report titled "Viet Nam Affordable Housing - A Way Forward" on Monday says the structural shift out of rural areas and towards a higher-productivity manufacturing and service-based economy will drive population growth and new demand for housing in cities.

The share of the urban population is expected to reach 50 per cent by 2040, with an estimated 374,000 additional units needed in cities each year to cope with demand.

"Urbanisation has been used as a tool to accelerate economic growth and poverty reduction in many countries around the world, and affordable housing will be instrumental to helping Viet Nam achieve its goals for increasing productivity and inclusive urban growth."

According to the report, despite economic growth, Viet Nam still has a substantial deficit of quality housing. Almost 20 per cent of households, or approximately 4.8 million, are still living in poor conditions. Meanwhile, the majority of new demand for housing will be concentrated in a few major cities and industrial zones.

Together, the Red River Delta surrounding Ha Noi and the south-eastern region around HCM City will account for around two-thirds of the new demand.

Viet Nam has experienced several phases of housing policy in the past. Following liberalisation of the sector, growth in the real estate sector spurred by foreign direct investment and speculation led to significant home price increases and supply in the luxury market that eventually resulted in a real estate bubble from 2009-12.

The VND30 trillion (US$1.3 billion) stimulus package in 2012 helped reorient developers and lenders towards the affordable middle-income market where there is real home ownership need.

Amendments to the Housing Law passed in 2015 provide a strong legal framework for reforms with a new focus on supporting self-built housing, an active role for the private sector in housing, and addressing the shortage of affordable rental housing, especially for workers in industrial zones and students.

Towards that end, this report, which includes a comprehensive sector assessment and roadmap for affordable housing in Viet Nam, makes some key recommendations to increase and reorient government spending in the housing sector; develop a national affordable housing programme, prioritise structural reforms to improve governance of the housing sector and urban land management; and support market development.

Accordingly, government spending should focus on programmes that support and target the lowest two income quintiles and high growth cities, where the need for housing is most urgent.

A housing programme will act as a vehicle to implement the Housing Law and structure the government's interventions in the housing sector, the report says. This programme would include initiatives to improve access to housing finance, stimulate supply of affordable rental housing and enable delivery of core housing to support the self-built housing sector.

Regarding structural reforms, specific priorities are to strengthen an overarching co-ordinating body that includes all stakeholders and orchestrates implementation of selected housing initiatives, and to reform the land taxation framework.

And the market development will be supported by investing in the building blocks of a functioning housing sector, including regulatory reforms to incentivise greater private sector participation and improving real estate information systems and monitoring and evaluation standards.

Rate of water accidents still high

Domestic waterways play a critical role in passenger and cargo transport in the Mekong Delta, but the rate of accidents remains at a high level due to lack of attention from local and related authorities.

Speaking at a seminar on waterway safety held in the Delta province of Tien Giang, Nguyen Van Thach, head of the Ministry of Transport's Transport Safety Department, said: "Domestic waterway activities in the Delta are disorderly and unsafe because of narrow passages, and unlicensed and unsafe wharfs."

"Vessels are not registered and checked, while steersmen don't have driving licences," he added.

During the 2005-2014 period, the Mekong Delta had 1,150 accidents on waterways, with 644 fatalities.

For the first 10 months of this year, there were 97 accidents, 39 fatalities and eight injured people, with total damages of VND21 billion (around US$1 million).

At the seminar, 200 scientists, representatives of management offices, waterway police and members of transportation safety committees of Mekong Delta provinces took part in discussions.

The seminar also included presentations on safety for unlicensed wharfs; information systems that could help reduce accidents; inadequate regulations; and signals for ships during flooding season.

To resolve disorder on domestic waterways, the provinces will review and complete a new legal framework on domestic waterway transportation, as well as promote education about waterway laws to increase awareness among businesses.

A dissemination workshop on market and consumer study on HIV-related goods and services was held in Hanoi on December 15 as part of the Healthy Markets project implemented by PATH with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC).

The event was attended by PATH’s chief of party for the Healthy Markets project Kimberly Green, Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Authority of HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention Phan Thi Thu Huong and 50 representatives from government agencies, donors, international organizations, local NGOs, CBOs and private sector and social enterprises.

The workshop aims to disseminate key findings from a recent market and consumer study on condoms, lubricant, low dead space syringes (LDSS) and HIV testing services (HTS), and discuss its implications and recommendations for future HIV policy advocacy and programming.

Accordingly, The study indicated that the condom market is dominated by imported condoms (representing over 90%), and quality assurance is a significant concern, but there is room for annual market growth; and there is a growing market of HIV RDTs as the result of policy changes to meet increasing demand.

The study also identified political support from the government for growth of the commercial market and local manufacturing for HIV-related goods and services.

Regarding the consumer perspective, the report revealed that there is high willingness to pay for commercial condoms among key populations, particularly MSM; the great majority (over 80%) of key populations are willing to pay two-to-four times the price of socially marketed condoms (1,000VND).  

Annual HIV testing uptake among key populations is still low (33.2% PWID, 46.8% FSW and 52.6% MSM).

However, the study found that key populations, particularly MSM (55.7%) already pay for HIV testing, and the majority of key populations are willing to pay for HIV testing at the current average market price (VND50,000). MSM are willing to pay more (VND100,000).

This data provides insights into how the government can reserve its finite resources to reach key populations among the lowest wealth quintiles and promote a range of quality commercial options for those able and willing to pay.

Help-Portrait Viet Nam volunteers spread joy

An 18-month-old girl was lying on a mat in the corner of the hospital room, receiving treatment from an IV for a rare cancer found almost exclusively in children under five years old.

She had arrived with her father from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. Province to receive treatment for neuroblastoma, an extracranial tumour.

Because the paediatrics ward at the HCM City Oncology Hospital was often crowded and did not have enough beds, the young child had no choice but to sleep on the mat.

"Six months ago, my daughter was diagnosed and began treatment at the hospital, and now her health is improving," said Nguyen Khac Khanh, her father.

Little did Khanh or his daughter know they would receive a visit from photographers who offered to take the child's portrait for free.

The volunteers were from Help-Portrait Viet Nam, a local group which is part of the Help-Portrait "global movement of photographers, hair stylists and makeup artists whose mission is to use their time, tools and expertise to give back to those in need".

The Help-Portrait tasks, as outlined on its website, are simple and straightforward: "Find someone in need. Take their picture. Print their picture and deliver their picture. Find a local help portrait group. Start or lead a group."

When the volunteers at the HCM City Oncology Hospital visited the paediatrics ward, Khanh immediately agreed to their request and quickly put his daughter on his lap. Proud father and child posed for the photo.

The volunteer photographers were able to put the child at ease by clowning around and making faces.

"Thank you for bringing such a joyful atmosphere to the entire room. I'm very happy," Khanh said.

Like Khanh, smiles also appeared on the face of Ly Thi Thao, another parent from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, whose 12-year-old daughter was being treated to reduce the size of uterine fibroids.

After the fibroids become smaller, the girl will be transferred to the city Paediatrics Hospital No. 2 for surgery. Four years ago, the fibroids were diagnosed, but they had now spread to her abdomen.

Thao, who knew how much his daughter likes having her photo taken, took the initiative and asked the volunteers for a photo.

"Since she lost her hair because of the treatment, she wants to have synthetic hair so that her photos look more beautiful," she said.

In addition to patients and parents, the joy of giving and sharing could be seen on the faces of the Help-Portrait volunteers.

Tran Trung Hieu, a volunteer of the programme, who works in the construction field, was the photographer who took photos of the one-year-old girl with cancer from Dak Lak Province.

"Seeing children smile makes me happy. I try to find the best angle for a great portrait of a face radiant with a smile," Hieu said.

Because of his interest in taking photos and Help-Portrait Viet Nam's programme's goals, Hieu said that he did not hesitate to sign up as a volunteer.

At the Oncology Hospital, the volunteers have also tried to create a festive Christmas atmosphere by giving gifts to children from Santa Claus.

Luong Van Doan, a volunteer who has dressed up like Santa Claus to present gifts on three occasions, said: "The most memorable time was when we returned to the ward after the photos had been printed to give them to some children, but they had passed away. They had not been able to see their portraits."

"How sad it was!" he said, his voice cracking.

The volunteers also visit shelters for the elderly, as well as people who work in industrial parks and export processing zones.

Mai Ngoc Tuyet Van, the team leader of the Oncology Hospital's Help-Portrait group, said the programme was carried out the first week of December each year.

Portraits are also taken of others who might be involved, such as taxi motorbike drivers.

The volunteers often bring portable printers so they can give the photos to people as soon as possible.

This year, the programme is being offered at 68 sites in 13 provinces and cities in the country.

"The programme was set up for the simple reason of sharing joy. Many people may not have equipment to take or develop a portrait for themselves," Van said.

The non-profit Help-Portrait Viet Nam was established in 2010, mostly by people with an interest in photography.

This year, 11,291 photos were taken, raising the total to nearly 40,000 photos since 2010.

Ho Tan Dat, deputy head of the Viet Nam Youth Federation in HCM City, said the volunteers' helpful activities "had made life more beautiful".

In recent years, the city and local residents, especially youth, have taken part in many volunteer programmes to contribute to the social welfare of the disadvantaged, particularly in rural and mountainous areas, Dat said.

Volunteer programmes have received an enthusiastic response from society, he added.

At labour-intensive manufacturing firms that depend mostly on women workers, employees' sexual and reproductive health issues have an impact on cost, productivity, workers' loyalty, and labour relations, experts have said.

"Reproductive healthcare is an investment, not a cost," Do Quynh Chi, director of the Research Centre for Employment Relations, said.

Around 18 per cent of pregnancies among factory workers are unintended, and each such birth costs the employer VND 18 million (US$800) in lost productivity, she said.

Forty per cent of women workers quit their jobs after giving birth and a worker takes 14.8 days off per year due to reproductive health reasons.

Providing healthcare for workers benefits employers rather than just being a legal requirement, she added.

Nguyen Van Tien, deputy chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Social Affairs, said for every dollar invested in women employees' reproductive healthcare, employers earn nearly 13 dollars.

The benefit for companies making appropriate investment in their workers' sexual and reproductive health is a healthy workforce that is much more committed to its workplace and higher productivity, he said.

It also helps reduce costs incurred by high labour turnover and high absenteeism due to reproductive health reasons, he said.

Approximately one out of five pregnancies among employees is unwanted, according to a survey done for a project titled "Advancing Social Economic Empowerment Of Female Migrant Workers through Development and Implementation Of Gender-Sensitive Initiatives" and funded by the EU and implemented by MSI Vietnam.

Around 40 per cent of women workers resign after maternal leave and more than two thirds suffer from reproductive tract infections, but only half of them seek medical care at their factory's healthcare facility. Nearly 96 per cent of pregnant employees expressed a desire to get quality pregnancy care at their factory facility.

The recently-concluded project, carried out at nine factories with 100,000 women workers in Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces between 2013 and 2015, aimed to improve the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of female workers at textiles and footwear factories, said Nguyen Thi Bich Hang, country director of Marie Stopes Viet Nam (MSI Vietnam), the UK-based non-governmental organisation.

More than 500,000 women workers have got access to essential sexual and reproductive health care information and services, Hang said.

It has improved the capacity of medical staff at factory facilities to provide counselling and medical services to workers. A number of best practices have been implemented, including establishment of a diverse range of communication channels such as peer educators, mobile clinics and health fair days, to share information and knowledge with employees.

Nguyen Phuoc Manh, deputy chairwoman of Dong Nai Province's Federation of Labour, said unintended pregnancies and gynaecological problems can be effectively prevented by raising awareness and providing reliable medical services.

Most women workers turn to their colleagues, friends, and relatives for information and advices on reproductive health, she said.

Fatal accidents on freeways on the rise due to speeding

The number of fatal traffic accidents occurring in expressways across the country is on the rise, according to an official from the Ministry of Transport, Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper reported yesterday.

There were many causes for the situation but drivers running over speed limits and failing to keep a safe distance between their vehicles and others were identified as the major reason, said Nguyen Xuan Hung, from the Expressway Management Department.

Statistics from the Viet Nam Expressway Corporation showed that failing to keep a safe distance between their vehicles and others accounted for 31 per cent of traffic accidents in expressways this year.

The latest case was the crash between two coaches, travelling in the same direction, early this week killing two passengers and injuring 22 others in a stretch of Noi Bai – Lao Cai Expressway through northern Vinh Phuc Province.

The ministry said one of the coaches suddenly stopped to pick up passengers along the expressway and the coach running behind, at an unsafe distance, failed to control its speed and hit into the coach.

Hung said inadequate infrastructure and limited public awareness added to the situation.

Vice president of the National Committee for Traffic Safety Khuat Viet Hung said Viet Nam now had about 700 kilometres of expressways and people benefited from using these expressways.

However, people intentionally driving their motorbikes in expressways designed only for cars, drivers stopping to pick up passengers in expressways, and vehicles carrying goods beyond permitted capacity were causes for the increase of tragic traffic accidents, Hung said.

Hoang Xuan Nguyen, vice chairman of the People's Committee of Yen Bai Province said people living nearby expressways were found to damage expressway barriers, or they even open ice-tea stalls along the barriers, ignoring rules about safety for vehicles. This meant that the safety level for vehicles would be reduced and could lead to traffic accidents.

The corporation's findings said dozens of ice-tea stalls were found along the Noi Bai – Lao Cai Expressway since early this year.

Vu Quang Thai, from the ministry's Traffic Police Department said the ministry was compiling a set of regulations about safe distances for vehicles travelling in expressways to bring the situation under control.

Following this, the safe distance between two vehicles travelling in expressways was scheduled to be about 30-90 metres with speeds of 60-120km per hour.

Employee shortage poses risk to HIV fight

Authorities in Son La Province, a northern border province infamous for drug smuggling and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, decided to lay off all non-permanent medical workers at methadone centres in the area.

According to Decision 93 issued by the municipal People's Committee, medical staff who work at local methadone centres on a yearly contract will lose their jobs next Friday.

It means that seven out of 10 employees of the Thuan Chau District's methadone centre, which provides the treatment drug to about 124 local people with drug addictions every morning, will be out of work. The other three are permanent employees, including the centre's director.

Lo Thi Tinh, 23, a contract employee at the centre, said everyone thinks the work she does – giving the patients the right dose of methadone - is easy and requires little effort.

"But in fact I have to work every day, even on the weekend with every morning spent with the patients while doing the paperwork - for example, the treatment report for the patients in the afternoon," Tinh said.

She receives a monthly wage of VND2.139 million (US$95), with neither social insurance nor bonus for her work on weekends.

Tinh said she struggles to raise her family of three on such a paltry sum of money, but added that she was still grateful for the position because it was difficult to find a job relevant to her pharmaceutical degree in the area.

The reason behind the furlough was not clearly stated in the Decision's document, but Son La HIV/AIDS Prevention Centre Director Dam Van Huong said that financial reasons likely triggered the decision to downsize.

Luong Minh Tuan, director of the Thuan Chau Health Centre, said the job cuts are expected to create problems for the health system, which already has a shortage of employees.

He said the three remaining staff would not be able to consult and provide treatment and follow-up health checks to the 100-plus patients who come to the methadone centre every day.

"So far we have no choice but to ask two employees from the two communal health stations to pick up the job here at the methadone centre," Tuan said. "Those two will share their time between the heath station and the centre."

Permanent staff frozen

The health stations affected by Decision 93 currently have five staff each to provide health services to a dozen thousand local people, and are already overloaded with their daily tasks.

One of the two, Tong Lanh Communal Health Station, which also provided ARV (antiretroviral) drugs to 50 HIV-positive patients, was spread thin due to a shortage of health workers, said head of the station Bac Thi Thuan.

"Freezing the number of permanent employees is making our work really hard," she said.

Keeping the number of permanent state employees stagnant, or going further by making additional staff cuts, has been a national priority policy in recent years.

Both the Government and residents have repeatedly called for action regarding the issue.

The Chieng Son commune's health station is located about 25km south of the abandoned villa of notorious drug ringleader Giang A Tang, who smuggled drugs worth millions of dollars from Laos to Viet Nam via Son La. At the same time, the region struggles to help people facing drug addiction.

The methadone centre, built next to the health station, expects to see staff cuts similar to Thuan Chau District's, and staff are bracing themselves for their 10 employees to be reduced to just three at the beginning of January.

Two workers of the station will be sent to the centre to help care for the 131 patients being treated with methadone, said health station head Tran Thi Van.

"But the hitch is that we are already strained with the current workload," she said.

Her health station is supposed to cover health services for about 9,000 residents with only seven workers available.

The lack of employees is posing a serious risk to the newly adopted pivot plan by the Government - the 90-90-90, said Son La HIV/AIDS Prevention Centre Director Dam Van Huong.

The plan, first initiated by UNAIDS last year, aims to make 90 per cent of all people living with HIV aware of their HIV status. In addition, it aims for 90 per cent of all people diagnosed with HIV to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy.

Son La, which has nearly 8,000 people facing drug addiction and 7,722 people with HIV, according to the provincial police, was chosen to be one of five pilot localities to carry out the plan that is due to reach the three targets in 2017.

The other four are also hot spots of HIV infection, including Dien Bien, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and HCM City.

Huong warned that the current employee shortage, worsened by the latest downsize, is likely to make the fight against HIV "a mess" in just three months.

Van, as a voice from the grassroots level of the health system, said that with the current number of employees, "it is simply impossible".

Hanoi develops grassroots healthcare network

The health department in Hanoi has directed medical centers across the capital to improve basic healthcare services.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, more than 305,431 patients received examination and treatment.

The health department has opened a number of training courses for doctors and nurses to increase their professional skills, while healthcare services are available around the clock.

Diseases have been put under control thanks to synchronous prevention measures. As a result, from October to December, Hanoi recorded no dangerous diseases.

The health sector ensured sufficient vaccination for children according to regulations of the Ministry of Health.

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Health Nguyen Van Dung said the sector will provide basic services for those holding health insurance cards at the grassroots level to reduce overload in the centrally-run hospitals.

Hanoi strives to have 95 percent of communes and towns to meet the national targets on communal health quality.

Khanh Hoa province welcomes 4 millionth visitor

A Russian tourist has become the four-millionth visitor to the central province of Khanh Hoa on December 24.

The lucky man - Vlasenko Stanislav, who arrived on Vietnam Airlines’ flight No.1362 from Ho Chi Minh City, was presented special gifts including free-of-charge services during his stay in Nha Trang city, including mud-bathing, diving tour and top-notch accommodation.

He said that the prizes came as a surprise to him, believing that this will be a fascinating winter holiday.

According to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the province expected to receive 4.15 million holiday-makers in 2015, comprising 974,000 foreigners.

The province set target to greet 4.5 million vacationers next year.

Khanh Hoa has become an ideal destination for both domestic and foreign travellers thanks to its intriguing sea and island tourism, gentle climate, stable price and quality services.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri