The National Assembly Chairman asked National Assembly deputies to focus on questioning four groups of issues: (1) Mobilization and arrangement of medical forces, ensuring medicine and medical supplies for people and disease prevention after natural disasters; (2) Issuance of licenses and practice certificates in the field of medical examination and treatment; (3) Current status of management of functional foods, pharmaceutical cosmetics and solutions to handle violations; (4) Prevention of harmful effects of tobacco and stimulants, especially in the school environment.
Speaking at the question-and-answer session, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that over the past time, the Ministry of Health has advised and implemented many drastic solutions to improve the effectiveness of state management; focused on perfecting the legal framework for the sector's operations, developing draft laws to submit to the National Assembly; developing and submitting to the Government and the Prime Minister for promulgation, according to their authority, strategies, programs, plans... to guide the sector's development in the coming period, and removing difficulties and obstacles in practice.
The Minister stated that the ministry has gradually resolved many specific issues such as: improving the quality of medical examination and treatment; bidding for procurement of drugs, vaccines, medical supplies, health insurance, regimes and policies for medical staff, etc.
In addition, the ministry also resolutely directed the reform of administrative procedures; increased decentralization and delegation of authority to units and localities; applied information technology and digital transformation in management, serving medical examination and treatment. Thereby reducing inconvenience, increasing publicity, transparency, efficiency and savings for people, businesses, the state and health insurance funds.
According to Minister Dao Hong Lan, in addition to the initial results achieved, the health sector has identified many shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome; requiring continued innovation and greater efforts to better perform the tasks assigned by the Party, State and people, meeting the trust and expectations of voters and people nationwide. With the highest sense of responsibility, seriousness, frankness and openness, the Ministry of Health respectfully listens to the opinions of National Assembly deputies on issues of the sector that are of interest to deputies, voters and people.
Raising the question, delegate Dang Thi Bao Trinh (National Assembly delegation of Quang Nam province) said that with the mentality that functional foods are nutritious, have no side effects, and are introduced as hand-carried goods, consumers do not hesitate to spend money on these products. The delegate asked the Minister of Health to clarify the responsibility of state management and solutions in the coming time to control the purchase and sale of these products.
Responding to a delegate’s question about the management of the functional food market, the Minister of Health said that “hand-carried functional food” is a term used by consumers to refer to imported products brought back by people who have gone abroad. This concept does not currently exist in legal documents.
When functional foods are brought from abroad and used for personal use, they are not subject to management. However, if those foods are brought out for sale, the condition for trading functional foods is that the food safety management agency must accept the product declaration registration, and the product must be labeled according to the regulations of Vietnamese law.
However, there is currently a situation where functional foods and cosmetics of unknown origin are being sold in stores, or sold via social networks and e-commerce platforms. The Minister affirmed that if products are sold, they must fully comply with regulations related to product registration and declaration. Selling products without this declaration is a violation of the law.
For advertising products, according to the provisions of the law on advertising, advertising products must have a certificate of advertising content provided by competent authorities. Selling online products of unknown origin and not fully meeting the regulations is a violation.
Analyzing the cause of this situation, the Minister said that the profit level makes some people disregard the provisions of the law. In addition, consumers also have a need to use hand-carried goods, believing that hand-carried goods are better than imported goods. As socio-economic conditions improve, the demand for health care is also increasing, causing people to have a need to use this type of product. Another reason is that controlling the sale of goods on social networks is still facing many difficulties.
The Minister said that in the coming time, the Ministry of Health will actively coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Information and Communications to strengthen control of sales in the market; promote information and propaganda so that consumers have the right awareness.
The Ministry of Health and other ministries have established a rapid response team. When violations are detected, the ministry will have a way to handle them according to the functions and tasks of each agency. However, the biggest problem at present is related to social networks, as the servers are located abroad, so control is beyond the scope of the authorities.
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/lam-ro-trach-nhiem-quan-ly-va-giai-phap-kiem-soat-mua-ban-thuc-pham-chuc-nang-3144088.html
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