Lam Dong: Hospitals lack medicine, patients struggle to buy outside

DNVN – Due to difficulties in bidding, in recent times, in Lam Dong province, there has been a situation where medical examination and treatment facilities lack medicine, supplies, and medical equipment, leading to patients having to buy them outside.

Lack of everything

Lam Dong Provincial Department of Health has just continued to report to the Ministry of Health (Department of Health Insurance) on the shortage of drugs, medical supplies, medical equipment and the situation where patients have to buy them outside in the province.

Hospitals lack medicine and medical supplies, patients have to buy them outside. Illustrative photo.

Accordingly, a number of drug supply packages of medical units in Lam Dong province have expired or are about to expire, such as: the drug and medicinal material supply package in the list of centralized bidding at the local level for public medical facilities in Lam Dong province in 2022-2023, the contract will expire in December 2023.

The contract for the drug supply package of Lam Dong II Hospital (Bao Loc City) expires in May 2024. The contract for the drug supply package of Di Linh District Medical Center expires in June 2024 and many other packages.

In addition, some pharmaceutical products have no bidders after many biddings: Azithromycin (package), Cefaclor (package, tablet), Human Insulin mixed, 30/70 ratio mixture (injection pen), Fentanyl 0.1mg/2ml, Atropine (eye drops), Salbutamol (tablet)... and many other drugs.

Regarding medical supplies and chemicals, medical examination and treatment units in Lam Dong province are conducting bidding according to the provisions of the Bidding Law 2023 and Decree 24/ND-CP dated February 27, 2024. Bidding for medical supplies without technical classification has resulted in some medical equipment and supplies winning the bid. Especially high-tech items have not met the professional requirements to ensure the best treatment results.

Patients struggle to buy outside

According to the Lam Dong Provincial Department of Health, at some points, medical facilities in the province do not have available medicines and medical supplies to treat patients, so they have to switch to using other medicines and medical supplies available at the unit.

However, in some cases, the unit does not have other drugs or supplies to replace them and cannot transfer the patient to another medical facility, so the patient has to buy them outside the hospital.

Mr. TMT in Lac Duong district said, I recently took my wife to Lam Dong General Hospital for treatment for nearly 10 days. When I was discharged from the hospital, the doctor gave me a prescription to buy medicine to take home and continue taking it. However, when I went to the hospital pharmacy to buy it, they did not have all the medicines in the prescription, so I was instructed to go to an outside pharmacy to buy them.

“I had to take the doctor’s prescription to many large pharmacies outside the hospital to buy it, but they either didn’t have it or only had similar drugs. After searching for hours without success, I decided to ask for help from an acquaintance and finally was able to buy the exact type of medicine the doctor had prescribed,” Mr. T shared.

According to Mr. T, the cost of buying medicine outside is not large, but the patient's family has to spend a lot of time, effort and money to rent a car to go out to buy medicine. Even if they are not persistent in searching or do not have acquaintances to help, they cannot buy the right medicine as prescribed.

How long will it be?

According to the reporter's investigation, the shortage of drugs, supplies and medical equipment in the past time is due to the fact that the 2023 Bidding Law has taken effect since January 1, 2024, and Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP has taken effect since February 27, 2024. However, up to now, the Ministry of Health has not issued a circular guiding the selection of drug suppliers, has not issued a sample of contractor selection documents for drugs, and has not issued instructions on classifying medical equipment in terms of technical standards and quality as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 135, Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP.

How long will the local health sector and people have to wait for the shortage of medicine and medical supplies to end? Illustrative photo.

To temporarily "put out the fire", medical examination and treatment facilities use drugs from the results of contractor selection of bidding packages at the unit, the 2nd and 3rd local-level centralized bidding packages, the national-level centralized bidding packages and price negotiations that are still in effect to replace and use.

For drugs used for emergency, medical examination and treatment, the winning quantity has been exhausted and there are no other alternatives, the units are making purchases according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 23, Law on Bidding 2023.

For medical supplies and chemical bidding packages, units are developing plans and organizing contractor selection according to the provisions of the 2023 Bidding Law and Decree 24/2024/ND-CP.

According to the Lam Dong Provincial Department of Health, to temporarily have medicine and chemical supplies to serve patients, medical examination and treatment facilities must implement procurement packages under 50 million VND according to the instructions in Clause 4, Article 23 of the 2023 Bidding Law.

However, with the current demand for drugs, consumables, and chemicals at medical facilities, purchasing packages under 50 million VND still cannot promptly meet the medical examination and treatment needs of medical facilities, especially for hospitals that apply high technology in examining and treating patients.

It is known that not only Lam Dong, but also the health sector of provinces and cities have reported many times about the shortage of drugs, supplies, and medical equipment. However, up to now, the Ministry of Health has not issued a circular guiding the bidding for the supply of drugs, supplies, chemicals, and technical classification of medical supplies. How long will the local health sector and the people have to wait?

Yuan You

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/tin-tuc/lam-dong-benh-vien-thieu-thuoc-nguoi-benh-loay-hoay-mua-ngoai/20240521021115186