Development of public health personnel team in Center for Disease Control and Prevention in context of COVID-19

Objective In the context of COVID-19 prevention and control， to summarize the current situation of the public health personnel team development against the pandemic at a county-level center for disease control and prevention （CDC） in Shanghai’s extra-large urban area， to analyze and summarize the current situation and existing problems of the public health personnel team of the district and county-level CDCs， and to propose measures to strengthen and improve the development.

Methods Taking the Shanghai Pudong New Area Center for Disease Control and Prevention， which serves a population of 5.68 millions， as an example， through information access， individual interviews， questionnaires， holding symposiums， etc.， combined with the deployment of personnel in the handling of the COVID-19， we described the Pudong New Area CDC’s talent team characteristics， personnel recruitment and loss， and investigated the factors affecting the construction of talent team.

Results From 2014 to 2020， Pudong CDC recruited 115 people， and 65.71% of them chose to work there. 68 people resigned， with an average of 6.8 people leaving every year， with a fluctuating upward trend in resignation rate （χ²=0.158，P<0.05）. Since we entered the phase of regular COVID-19 prevention and control in 2020， the staff have been overloaded with work， based on the number of hours spent dealing with the pandemic on the spot and the number of people on the job. In 2017 to 2019， the salary of staff was basically maintained at the level of 2016 （average annual growth of about 2.5%）； it lacked targeted talent recruitment （one-time resettlement fee， etc.） and talent retention incentives （monthly housing subsidy for new employees， etc.）. According to the questionnaire’s results， 79.23% of the respondents believed that the talent incentive mechanism needs to be improved， 73.43% believed that a good environment for talent growth needs to be created， and 50.24% thought that the employment mechanism needs to be reformed. It is difficult to meet the needs of pandemic prevention and control under the new situation with the current number of public health personnel， the recruitment of talents is insufficient， the turnover is too high， and there is a gap between the ability of some public health personnel and what is required of them under the new situation and new tasks.

Conclusion The quantity and quality of public health personnel for disease control in Shanghai can hardly meet the needs of pandemic prevention and control under the new situation. The pertinence and systematization of public health talent training urgently need to be strengthened， and the incentive mechanism needs to be improved.