Resolving difficulties in bidding for drugs and medical supplies

Dak Lak Newspaper reporter talked with Mr. NGUYEN, Deputy Director of the Department of Health about this issue.

Thanks to the implementation of many synchronous solutions, the supply of drugs at public health facilities has improved significantly compared to before, meeting the people's needs for medical examination and treatment.

In particular, the full, timely and unified promulgation of bidding regulations including: Bidding Law No. 22/2023/QH15, dated June 23, 2023 of the National Assembly; Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP, dated February 27, 2024 of the Government detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Bidding Law on contractor selection; Circular No. 07/2024/TT-BYT, dated May 17, 2024 of the Ministry of Health regulating drug bidding at public health facilities has created a legal corridor and perfected the institution for bidding for the procurement of drugs and medical supplies.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Vu Quang, Deputy Director of Dak Lak Department of Health.

However, the shortage of drugs and medical equipment has not been completely resolved. Drug shortages still occur locally in some medical facilities due to various reasons.

In addition to objective causes such as suppliers not ensuring quantity, interruptions in drug supply, and strong fluctuations in raw material prices for the production of some drugs, there are also subjective causes leading to drug shortages such as:

Public health facilities lack initiative in planning and estimating drug needs, and their forecasting capacity is not guaranteed. The hospital's drug forecast is based on proposals from departments and offices; analysis of the amount of drug used in the previous year, and the number of drugs in stock. However, the disease structure changes every year, so the work of planning drug supply faces many difficulties, especially for some specific diseases and specific drugs.

In addition, most medical staff are specialized in the field of medical examination and treatment, and have not received specialized training in bidding. Although the legal regulations on drug bidding issued recently have removed difficulties and created a legal corridor, there are still many new points that medical facilities have not fully grasped and applied to procurement.

In addition, fear of mistakes and inspections also causes some units to delay in purchasing medicine and medical supplies.

To solve the above difficulties, it is necessary to enhance the responsibility of departments and offices of medical facilities when planning drugs, ensuring that the planning is close to actual use; focus on human resources, improve the capacity of drug bidding for medical staff; strengthen the role of drug and treatment councils in hospitals, ensuring safe, reasonable and effective use of drugs.

Buon Ma Thuot City General Hospital provides medicine for patients.

In particular, in order to facilitate drug procurement and reduce the burden of bidding procedures, the Department of Health has developed a plan to organize centralized drug bidding for medical facilities across the province and has been approved by the Provincial People's Committee in Decision No. 414/QD-UBND, dated February 25, 2024 on promulgating the list of centrally bid drugs under the management of Dak Lak province; Decision No. 502/QD-UBND, dated March 5, 2025 of the Provincial People's Committee on assigning a centralized drug procurement unit at the local level of Dak Lak province.

Accordingly, the Department of Health will organize centralized drug bidding for medical facilities throughout the province. The Department of Health has been assigned to centralized drug bidding for many years, so it has experience in organizing and selecting contractors. Centralized bidding helps shorten the time for selecting contractors, reducing drug shortages. Currently, the list of centralized drug bidding is in the planning stage of selecting contractors and is deployed on bidding software.

In addition, the Department of Health also strengthens decentralization and delegation of authority to medical facilities in the province so that in addition to the list of drugs for centralized bidding at the local level, units proactively review and purchase drugs and medical supplies to fully serve the health care needs of people in the area under their management.

The simultaneous implementation of solutions will help the drug bidding process to be organized effectively and quickly. At the same time, medical staff of public hospitals will have time to perform professional examination and treatment work.

* Thank you!

(perform)

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/y-te-suc-khoe/202504/go-kho-trong-dau-thau-thuoc-vat-tu-y-te-3561aab/