Ministry of Health removes obstacles in bidding activities at medical facilities

At the Workshop on implementing the Law on Bidding, Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP and Circulars of the Minister of Health, many problems in bidding activities at medical facilities were discussed.

According to information from the Workshop, in the past time, to overcome difficulties and obstacles in procurement, bidding and the shortage of drugs, supplies and medical equipment, the National Assembly issued the Law on Bidding 2023, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023; the Government issued Decree No. 96/2023/ND-CP guiding the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment and Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP guiding the Law on Bidding;

The shortage of drugs has been a serious problem recently.

The Ministry of Health has issued Circulars guiding the implementation of the Law on Bidding on the purchase of drugs, medical supplies and medical equipment for units to apply.

Legal regulations on bidding for the purchase of drugs, medical supplies and equipment have been issued promptly, fully, consistently and synchronously; in which many solutions have been stipulated to remove difficulties and obstacles in the procurement of drugs, chemicals, medical supplies and equipment in recent times.

According to Mr. Hoang Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Finance, Ministry of Health, in recent times, the Ministry of Health has continuously organized many conferences to train, disseminate and guide the implementation of bidding laws in direct and online forms to all Departments of Health and hospitals nationwide.

In addition, functional units of the Ministry such as the Department of Planning and Finance, the Department of Legal Affairs, the Department of Drug Administration, the Department of Traditional Medicine Administration, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, the National Drug Centralized Procurement Center, etc. have proactively coordinated with many Departments of Health and hospitals to promptly guide investors in carrying out procurement and bidding work to ensure compliance with legal regulations, while continuing to strengthen guidance, inspection and supervision of the selection of contractors to supply drugs and medical equipment.

The Ministry also proactively and promptly issued documents directing, urging, and guiding to remove difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of procurement and bidding for drugs, chemicals, testing supplies, and medical equipment to all localities and medical facilities.

In addition, the Ministry of Health has also issued a Decision on decentralizing the authority to decide on the contents in the contractor selection process for hospitals under the Ministry so that hospitals can be proactive, flexible, self-determined and responsible for ensuring medicines, supplies and medical equipment for medical examination and treatment at hospitals.

In the near future, the Ministry of Health will develop and issue a Handbook on procedures for bidding for hospitals to refer to and apply.

At the workshop, representatives of the Departments of Health and hospitals in the Southern region raised many outstanding issues such as complicated appraisal and approval procedures in some localities;

Some localities have not yet fully decentralized the decision-making process for hospitals; the collection of quotations and information to determine the bid package price is still not uniformly understood, such as determining the bid package price based on the highest, lowest or average quotation; difficulties in approving the budget estimate for procurement; and assessing the origin of goods stated by the contractor in the bidding documents;

Currently, there are no specific instructions on preparing and evaluating bidding documents, nor does the circular have clear regulations on the content of some proprietary drugs in the Health Insurance List...

Many contents have been specifically guided and answered by experts such as: applying the option to buy more to be able to buy more medicine, supplies, and medical equipment immediately; medical facilities can bid to purchase quantities for use in 2 years, 3 years instead of bidding for 1 year as before; how to determine the appropriate bidding package price;

Evaluation of the origin of goods; implementation of incentives for domestically produced goods; appraisal of contractor selection plans in centralized procurement... Circulars of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Health have standardized all stages in the contractor selection process, with clear regulations on the order and procedures for bidding.

Also at this workshop, representatives of the National Online Bidding Center under the Ministry of Planning and Investment also guided investors on how to exploit and look up information on winning bid prices, winning bid items, and information about contractors on the National Bidding Network System so that investors can use it as a basis for building bid package prices, evaluating bid documents, and finding information about contractors and bidding information of other localities and hospitals.

Mr. Do Trung Hung, Director of the Legal Department, Ministry of Health affirmed that the Ministry will continue to support and guide units to remove obstacles in the implementation of legal regulations related to procurement and bidding.

At the workshop, delegates raised questions about purchasing drugs for retail sale at hospital pharmacies. Experts said that for purchasing drugs for retail sale at hospital pharmacies, Article 16 of Circular No. 07/2024/TT-BYT has provided specific instructions on how to purchase.

Accordingly, for drugs in the list of drugs covered by health insurance participants, hospitals can choose to include the quantity of drugs needed to be purchased for retail sale in the quantity of drugs needed to be purchased and bid by the hospital and make a plan to select contractors and organize contractor selection according to regulations.

The hospital can also separate the quantity of drugs to be purchased for retail sale into one or several bidding packages; plan the selection of contractors and organize the selection of separate contractors.

At the workshop, the representative of the Ministry of Health also said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment is currently presiding over the drafting of the Law amending and supplementing a number of Laws, including the 2023 Law on Bidding.

Based on the suggestions and consensus of many hospitals, the Ministry of Health has compiled and issued a document requesting the Ministry of Planning and Investment to consider and amend the regulations on purchasing drugs for retail sale in pharmacies on hospital premises in the direction of allowing hospitals to apply direct purchasing multiple times, instead of once as per current regulations.

Allowing multiple direct purchases, along with other regulations such as: applying additional purchase options, purchasing for use for more than one year, applying online bidding, online shopping... will ensure meeting the requirements for purchasing drugs for hospital pharmacies, medical supplies, equipment and other goods.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/bo-y-te-thao-go-vuong-mac-trong-hoat-dong-dau-thau-tai-cac-co-so-y-te-d227256.html