Ho Chi Minh City to fund medical residency training

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has approved a special resolution to provide financial support for medical residency training to bolster the city's specialized healthcare workforce. The policy aims to address shortages in high-tech medical specialties and public hospitals, where residency numbers currently fail to meet demand.

Under the new regulation, residents can receive support of up to 100 million VND per person per year. This initiative seeks to mitigate the financial pressures of high tuition fees and living costs associated with the intensive three-year training programs, which require full-time clinical practice and study.

The city aims to become a specialized medical hub for Southeast Asia. Currently, medical residents make up only about 10-12% of the total practicing doctors in public hospitals. The policy specifically targets essential but under-enrolled fields such as psychiatry, pathology, infectious diseases, intensive care, anesthesiology, neurology, cardiology, and pediatrics.