There are units and officers who are still hesitant in the drug bidding process.

According to Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, in reality, there are units and officials who do not dare to think or act during the drug bidding process, and are still afraid of making mistakes, so there are still problems during implementation.

Delegating the hospital pharmacy's purchasing initiative to the medical facility

On the afternoon of November 11, questioning the Minister of Health, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy (Bac Kan) said that according to the feedback from hospital pharmacies, there are still difficulties in bidding for drugs and in reality there are still times when people finish their medical examination but cannot buy drugs at the hospital pharmacy, affecting treatment.

The delegate asked the Minister of Health to tell him what the problem is and when it will be resolved?

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy (Bac Kan) questioned the Minister of Health on the afternoon of November 11.

Responding to the issue of hospital pharmacies, the Minister of Health said that in recent times, the Government has had many policy solutions to solve the problem of drug shortages. In particular, the 2023 Bidding Law has introduced many policies to solve the problem of drug procurement and bidding at medical facilities.

Regarding hospital pharmacies, the Minister said that this is a pharmacy managed by the hospital and organized to buy retail to sell to people when needed, not taking money from the budget, not from health insurance. Previously, this purchase was entirely decided by the hospital.

However, the 2023 Law on Bidding stipulates that hospital pharmacies must also organize bidding. The arising needs of patients are very diverse. Therefore, organizing bidding for hospital pharmacies faces many difficulties. Medical facilities have reflected this content during the process of building the revised Law on Pharmacy.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan explains and clarifies.

Incorporating the opinions of the facilities, the current Law on Pharmacy (amended) (to be approved at the end of the 8th session) has resolved the issue related to hospital pharmacies, will hand over the initiative in hospital pharmacy procurement to medical facilities and ensure publicity and transparency.

"On that basis, we will provide more medicine sources to serve the people," Minister Dao Hong Lan acknowledged.

"There are some staff who are still confused when reading the bidding instructions."

Debate on this issue, delegate To Van Tam (Kon Tum) said that in the past, there were legal bottlenecks. Recently, the Government and the National Assembly have made many efforts to remove those bottlenecks. For example, there is the 2023 Bidding Law, the 2023 Medical Examination and Treatment Law, Decree 96 of 2024 and Decree 24 of 2023 to detail these laws.

The Ministry of Health has also issued circulars to guide bidding.

Delegate To Van Tam (Kon Tum) debated.

According to the delegate, legal mechanisms and bottlenecks have been basically resolved. However, drug shortages still exist.

So is there a lack of responsibility on the part of those responsible for the bidding of these medical facilities? If so, how did the Minister of Health handle this issue?

Responding to the question of whether the shortage of drugs is due to a lack of responsibility, the Minister of Health said that there will be three levels of bidding for drug purchases.

The first level is centralized purchasing at the Ministry of Health, the second level is purchasing at the provincial level and assigning it to the locality to implement, and the third level is medical facilities.

During the implementation process, the Law on Bidding took effect from January 1, 2024, which is also the first year of implementing the new regulations.

The Ministry of Health has worked with localities, regularly issued documents and held online conferences to guide the implementation of bidding activities in 63 provinces and cities.

The Ministry of Health has found that due to the new regulations, it is difficult to research, understand, and arrange human resources for implementation. Some human resources are still confused when reading these documents, so the implementation process is still difficult.

Panorama of the parliament

To solve this problem, in addition to training for all localities, the Ministry of Health is developing a handbook on drug bidding that will provide very specific step-by-step instructions so that localities have the capacity to implement it.

According to Minister Dao Hong Lan, in reality, there are units and officials who do not dare to think or act, and are still afraid of making mistakes, so there are still problems in the implementation process.

This content has been directed to all medical examination and treatment facilities and submitted to the Prime Minister for issuance of Directive 24 stipulating the responsibility of the head of the medical examination and treatment facility to fully perform the responsibilities related to ensuring drugs, medical equipment and supplies.

The Ministry will continue to support the leaders so that any remaining problems in the implementation process will be resolved. The Ministry hopes that localities and directors of medical examination and treatment facilities will focus on implementing this extremely important task.

Hospital lacks medicine due to delayed insurance payment

Delegate Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy (Tay Ninh) questioned the delay in payment of insurance costs, which is causing difficulties for hospitals and drug bidding.

"Hospitals are facing difficulties and are in debt. How will the Minister resolve this problem?", Ms. Thuy asked.

Delegate Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy (Tay Ninh delegation).

Responding to delegates, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that this content was directed by the Government, the Ministry of Health has resolved over 11,000 billion VND of outstanding debt, which is being allocated to medical facilities, as a resource for hospitals to purchase equipment and bid for drugs.

"Due to insurance arrears, hospitals have not been able to buy medicine recently," said Minister Dao Hong Lan.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/bo-truong-bo-y-te-co-don-vi-can-bo-con-e-ngai-trong-qua-trinh-dau-thau-thuoc-19224111116231493.htm