Lack of medicine, equipment and medical supplies: Solving difficulties step by step

18:54, 31/08/2023

On the morning of August 31, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council held an explanation session; during which a lot of time was spent on questioning, debating, and answering questions focusing on the shortage of medicines, equipment, and medical supplies at public hospitals in the province from the beginning of 2021 to June 2023. Accordingly, many issues were mentioned, discussed, and clarified by the delegates.

Difficulties and obstacles in bidding

Responding to questions from delegates about the shortage of drugs, equipment, and medical supplies at medical facilities, leading to patients and their families having to buy drugs, medical supplies, and equipment from outside to carry out treatment at medical facilities, Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La explained: During the period, most medical facilities experienced drug shortages, but at different levels. The drug shortage occurred relatively seriously in 2022, when there were no results of contractor selection for the local-level concentrated drug list.

Delegate HBlă Mlô questioned the shortage of medicine and medical supplies that forced patients and their families to buy them.

Delegate H'Blă Mlô questioned the shortage of medicine and medical supplies that forces patients and their families to buy them outside to receive treatment at medical facilities.

For the list of items that medical facilities bid for themselves, local drug shortages occur at certain times: Transition between bidding packages or bidding but not being able to select a contractor, or because the contractor supplies slowly, in small amounts, or the bid is too low and contractors do not participate.

At the Central Highlands General Hospital, due to having to receive a large number of patients transferred from lower-level hospitals, there is a shortage of some drugs, especially Immune globulin, during the current peak of the hand, foot and mouth disease.

Regarding the shortage of medical equipment, supplies, chemicals, and biological products, currently some hospitals have run out of a large number of items for routine work. In the near future, some more supplies and chemicals for testing will run out, such as: infusion lines, intravenous catheters, artificial kidney catheters, biochemical chemicals, hematological chemicals, blood screening chemicals, chemical supplies for COVID-19 treatment, etc.

Explaining the delegates' opinions on the causes of this situation, Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La said that there were several main causes: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; mechanisms, policies, and laws related to bidding; lack of human resources to carry out bidding work and the organization of bidding implementation at the local level.

Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La explained and clarified issues of concern and questions to delegates.

The main reason is that the implementation of central documents is still facing many difficulties, especially Circular 14/2020/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health and Decree 98/2021/ND-CP of the Government; at the same time, the responsibility of price appraisal agencies is still hesitant and afraid of making mistakes; the quality of human resources is still limited in the field of medical equipment procurement...

Actively "removing obstacles"

Director of the Department of Health Nay Phi La affirmed that, with the motto of putting people's lives and health first and foremost, and with the attention of the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee, the Department of Health has closely coordinated with relevant departments, branches, and sectors, and the Provincial Social Insurance to advise competent authorities to deploy many synchronous solutions, remove difficulties to promptly resolve this situation.

In May 2023, the Department of Health approved the results of contractor selection, basically resolving the drug shortage, mainly concentrated in items for which contractors could not be selected or contractors did not participate.

In addition, the Department of Health will request the winning bidders to urgently review and work with suppliers to speed up the supply progress and commit to ensuring the supply of the winning items, report on the inventory quantity and the production and supply status of the winning items.

Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council questioned the bidding for drugs, equipment and medical supplies.

Head of the Economic - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council Vo Dai Hue questioned the bidding process for drugs, equipment and medical supplies.

Contractors must also be responsible for providing equivalent replacement items if required, to avoid shortages of medicines and medical supplies for medical examination and treatment needs of medical facilities.

At the same time, severely punish contractors who violate the supply regulations in accordance with the provisions of the Bidding Law, so that contractors have a sense of responsibility in ensuring supply.

The Director of the Department of Health also advised the Provincial People's Committee to recommend the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to continuously update the list of suppliers that meet the requirements on capacity, experience and delivery progress, in order to select reputable contractors to win the bid...

Answering the questions of delegates about the responsibility of the Director of the Department of Health for the shortage of drugs and medical equipment in public hospitals in the past time, Director of the Department Nay Phi La deeply recognized the role in leading and directing health care activities in general, finding solutions to avoid the shortage of drugs, supplies and medical equipment in public hospitals in particular. On the basis of overcoming the above shortcomings, in the coming time, the work of purchasing drugs and equipment will be directed to be more complete and effective, better serving the needs of people's health care in the new situation...

“The content of the explanation was carefully considered and selected, close to reality, focusing on “hot” issues that the public, society, voters and provincial People’s Council delegates are interested in. Through the explanation, the current situation, shortcomings, limitations, causes, especially subjective causes, responsibilities, roadmap and directions for solutions and remedies in the coming time have been basically clarified…”, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Council Huynh Thi Chien Hoa .

Lan Anh

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