Ca Mau: Hospital lacks money to pay salaries and owes money for medicine

Many medical facilities in Ca Mau are facing a serious shortage of funds, not enough to pay staff salaries and owing billions of dong in medicine debts.

On the afternoon of September 26, the leader of Ca Mau Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital confirmed that he had reported to the Department of Health that he was no longer able to balance salaries from September to the end of 2025.

The Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital has a scale of 100 beds, and at the beginning of 2025, it was only allocated 2.4 billion VND from the budget, enough to pay salaries for the first 3 months of the year. From April onwards, the hospital had to manage with medical examination and treatment revenue and health insurance advances, but so far it still lacks more than 4.4 billion VND to pay salaries to employees. In addition, as of the end of August 2025, the hospital still owed more than 2.2 billion VND for medicine.

Ca Mau Tuberculosis and Lung Hospital has reported to the Ca Mau Department of Health that it is no longer able to balance salaries from September to the end of 2025.

PHOTO: GB

According to the leader of the Ca Mau Department of Health, this situation does not only occur at the Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Hospital but also at many other facilities. The main reason is that the cost of health insurance examination and treatment in 2020 and 2023 exceeds the ceiling but has not yet been settled. Meanwhile, the Social Insurance only advances a maximum of 80% and processes records very slowly, causing hospitals to fall into a deadlock. The source of revenue for medical examination and treatment is limited, while the budget allocated according to the hospital bed quota is not enough to maintain operations.

A leader of a medical center in Ca Mau said that the revenue from medical examination and treatment activities at the district level (old) is currently very low, while the State budget allocated to units is only based on the hospital bed quota. When the revenue is not enough to cover expenses, many places are no longer able to pay salaries and allowances to employees, even though they still have to deploy new techniques and apply the collection price according to Resolution 41/NQ-HDND of Ca Mau province.

The difficulties are compounded when Decree 60/2021/ND-CP and Decree 111/2025/ND-CP force public health units to increase their financial autonomy. In reality, the number of patients treated is mainly concentrated at the provincial level, while hospitals and health centers do not have a stable source of income. Previously, to maintain salary payments, many centers had to use regular funds from commune health stations to compensate.

Delays in payment mechanisms and budget allocations are pushing many hospitals and medical centers in Ca Mau into a financial imbalance, with both a lack of money to pay salaries and debts to drug suppliers. Without timely solutions, the local health system risks falling into a vicious cycle: hospitals do not have resources, staff are not motivated enough, and patients are at risk from the stagnation of health services.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ca-mau-benh-vien-thieu-tien-tra-luong-no-tien-thuoc-185250926172507991.htm