Pattern of disease, status of medical network and human resource at Pediatric facilities in the Northern mountainous provinces of Vietnam in 2022

Abstract

A cross - sectional study was to describe the characteristics of child disease patterns, the current status of pediatric organizational network and human resource adminstration in 8 northern mountainous provinces in 2022. It was conducted on 86 medical units at province-level and district-level which had pediatric beds. The research results showed that the most common disease pattern in the Northern mountainous provinces was respiratory disease (average rate accounted 47.3%). Lower respiratory tract infection was the leading cause of death in both children under 1 year old and under 5 years old. The most common group of referral disease is the oncology group (8.7%). The ratio of pediatrician/10,000 children in the area was very low with 2 pediatricians/10,000 children. The ratio of pediatric nursing/10,000 children was 3.5. The ratio of pediatric bed/1000 children was 0.82. Pediatric health providers in this area had been critically lacked in both quantity and professional capacity. The pediatric medical network unbalanced among the provinces and districts. The Ministry of Heatlh and authorities in all levels need to raise policies to improve the capacity of examination and treatment as well as nursing care, especially in the Neonatology, Emergency resuscitation, NCDs such as Oncology, Hematology, Enterology the Northern moutainous area of Vietnam.