Need to direct strongly in bidding
Participating in the discussion session on the socio-economic situation and the State budget on May 31, National Assembly member Pham Khanh Phong Lan (HCMC delegation) requested the Government, especially the Ministry of Health, to have a clear and official answer on when vaccines can be guaranteed for the National Expanded Immunization Program?
National Assembly Deputy Pham Khanh Phong Lan speaks at the meeting.
Delegate Pham Khanh Phong Lan said that there needs to be strong direction in conducting bidding or price negotiations, or solutions to be proactive, and not to push responsibility to localities just because the Ministry of Finance transfers resources...
According to the delegate, the responsibility and consequences of this will be extremely serious if the vaccines of the National Expanded Immunization Program are delayed. Therefore, the delegate requested that the Government should have a clear and decisive answer on this issue.
Participating in explaining and clarifying a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies related to the health sector, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that, in addition to the achieved results, after the pandemic, the health sector has revealed difficulties and shortcomings that need to be removed and resolved.
According to Minister Dao Hong Lan, the health sector with the highest determination has been, is and will be focusing on removing difficulties, obstacles and problems of the sector. The issues that the delegates are interested in are also issues that voters and people across the country are deeply concerned about.
Regarding the implementation of the expanded immunization program in 2023, the Minister said that over the past many years, the Ministry of Health has implemented an expanded immunization program with 10 dangerous infectious diseases for children and women nationwide.
In the 2016-2020 period, the Ministry of Health will be allocated funds to carry out centralized procurement of vaccines for the expanded immunization program, anti-tuberculosis drugs, anti-HIV drugs, Vitamin A, etc.
Of which, with 9 types of domestically produced vaccines, these vaccines have only 1 domestic manufacturer, which is a unit under the Ministry of Health, so the Ministry has implemented an ordering mechanism for all types of domestically produced vaccines in accordance with regulations.
For imported vaccines, the Ministry of Health has implemented a procurement mechanism through UNICEF in the form of selecting contractors in special cases according to Article 26 of the Law on Bidding, or conducting centralized bidding for eligible vaccines with 3 or more registrations.
Delegates attending the meeting on the afternoon of May 31.
In the 2021-2022 period, in order to have a suitable roadmap when converting the mechanism from purchasing with the central budget to assigning implementation to localities, the National Assembly has issued a Resolution on central budget allocation, accordingly, the Ministry of Health is assigned the estimated source from the central budget, to carry out procurement to supply vaccines for the expanded immunization program, ensuring for 2 years 2021 and 2022.
In 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the implementation of some program contents in many localities. The Ministry of Health has directed provinces and cities to strengthen the implementation of regular vaccination in the last months of the year, and review the subjects of vaccination, supplementary vaccination, and catch-up vaccination for children and women nationwide.
To implement the content of 2023 with the desire to continue purchasing vaccines for the expanded immunization program, anti-tuberculosis drugs, anti-HIV drugs ARV and vitamin A to serve localities as in previous years, in order to remove difficulties and obstacles for localities, the Ministry of Health has proposed the Ministry of Finance to develop the State budget estimate for 2023.
In particular, it is proposed to allocate funds to carry out tasks transferred from health and population target programs to regular tasks to purchase vaccines for the expanded immunization program, anti-tuberculosis drugs for those without health insurance cards, ARV drugs and vitamin A for children.
“However, the tasks under the health and population target programs have been converted into regular expenditure tasks of ministries, branches and localities, so according to the provisions of the Law on Public Investment and State budget decentralization, the Ministry of Health is not allowed to allocate funds to implement these tasks,” said the head of the health sector.
Ensuring supply to localities
According to the Minister of Health, in the recent past, the Ministry of Health has also reviewed the source of vaccines from 2022 to present. For domestically produced vaccines, the expanded immunization program has provided enough vaccines for 2022 and until July 2023.
In particular, hepatitis B vaccine and tuberculosis vaccine will be used until August 2023, Japanese encephalitis vaccine, measles, rubella, bOPV vaccines will be used until the third and fourth quarters of 2023, tetanus and polio vaccines will be administered at all levels to meet the demand until the end of 2023.
Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan.
Currently, the expanded immunization program continues to deploy available vaccines at commune and ward vaccination sites. For tuberculosis, ARV, and high-dose Vitamin A drugs, the Ministry of Health is actively working with sponsors and using available drug sources to ensure supply to localities.
The Minister of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Health are launching a campaign to supplement vitamin A for children nationwide, starting from International Children's Day (June 1).
"Regarding the imported 5-in-1 vaccine, this is an imported vaccine because in 2022, bidding and procurement procedures were carried out according to regulations, however, there were no contractors participating, so there was a shortage in the market," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.
To ensure vaccines in 2023, the Minister added that the Ministry of Health has worked, listened and discussed with localities and has submitted to the Government a report and draft Resolution on this content. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has strongly directed the Ministry of Health to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to arrange funds and the central budget in 2023 for the Ministry of Health to implement procurement according to regulations as in previous years.
And to carry out this task, the Ministry of Health has sent an official dispatch to 63 provinces and cities, and has so far compiled enough needs of 63 provinces related to the request to buy vaccines nationwide. It has directed vaccine suppliers to prepare for the required tasks such as reviewing the supply capacity, production capacity as well as determining prices according to regulations .
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