Minister of Health talks about a series of "hot" issues in the industry

On the morning of October 30, in a speech explaining the opinions of National Assembly deputies, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that the situation of health workers being abused in medical examination and treatment facilities has been a hot issue in the health sector for a long time.

Assaulting medical staff while working is considered resisting law enforcement?

According to Ms. Lan, these incidents of violence not only seriously affect hospital security and safety but also directly threaten the health and lives of medical staff, patients and relatives of patients at the hospital.

"This has caused outrage in public opinion, damaged the psychology, and reduced the working spirit of medical staff," said Ms. Lan.

Minister of Health talks about a series of hot issues in the industry - 1

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan explains before the National Assembly (Photo: Minh Chau).

The Minister of Health said that he has repeatedly spoken out about the issue of strictly handling incidents where medical staff are abused and, more importantly, advising on policy mechanisms related to the issue of handling acts of using force to threaten medical staff while on duty.

According to Ms. Lan, when drafting the revised Law on Medical Examination and Treatment in 2023, the Ministry of Health has developed regulations on contents related to ensuring hospital security and safety. Among the prohibitions are regulations related to prohibiting infringement on the life and health of medical staff while on duty.

Ms. Lan said, "It is regrettable that the 2023 Law on Medical Examination and Treatment has not yet included this content for implementation." In recent years, violence has not only not decreased but has also increased and become more serious.

She cited six cases of violence against medical staff in 2025, the most recent being at the Nghe An Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital. The Minister of Health said this was a wake-up call and also "the last straw".

"If we do not have stronger solutions, the problem of violence will not stop," said the Minister of Health, expressing his hope that the National Assembly's resolution will include content on assaulting health workers while on duty as a form of resisting law enforcement officers.

Waiting for mechanism to resolve outstanding issues

Regarding the issue of procurement and bidding, Ms. Lan said that this has been mentioned in many recent National Assembly sessions. Recently, the National Assembly, the Government, ministries, branches and localities have also made great efforts to resolve this issue.

According to Ms. Lan, up to this point, laws related to procurement, bidding, the Pharmacy Law and other laws related to the health sector have also been passed by the National Assembly.

Ms. Lan gave an example of the Law on Procurement and Bidding, which has been amended. During the amendment process, the Ministry of Health sought opinions from medical facilities and localities related to the health sector's problems in procurement and bidding, which were fully compiled by relevant agencies to report to the National Assembly, reported to the Government, and the National Assembly approved.

Minister of Health talks about a series of hot issues in the industry - 2

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Vu Hong Thanh chaired the meeting (Photo: Minh Chau).

The Minister of Health affirmed that the basic mechanisms and policies have been resolved and there are no outstanding issues.

However, Ms. Lan said that in practice there are very complicated problems, not only domestically but also internationally, such as problems related to supply disruptions, high prices of drugs and equipment, which also cause bidding packages to not meet the requirements. These are objective problems.

Regarding the issue of paying for self-medication and the list of drugs that patients must buy themselves, Ms. Lan said that the ministry has issued Circular 22 of 2024 and most recently, from July 1, it has implemented Decree 188 of the Government, which clearly stipulates the conditions, subjects and payment levels.

"There are no more problems with this content," the Minister of Health affirmed.

Regarding some contents related to Resolution 99/2023/QH15 on definitively handling the establishment of public ownership of assets funded for Covid-19 prevention and control, Ms. Lan said that this is a content that has never arisen in practice. For the Covid-19 epidemic, we must use unprecedented measures.

In the process of solving this backlog, Ms. Lan said that the Ministry of Health has coordinated with ministries, branches and localities to compile statistics. Currently, the amount of orders without unit prices or contracts is 1,257 billion VND and the borrowing is 1,834 billion VND.

She emphasized that to resolve this backlog, it is necessary to compare with legal regulations.

According to the Law on Public Asset Management, drugs, equipment, and medical supplies of public service units are public assets. This law does not have any provisions on borrowing public assets for public service units, but only rents them to serve the implementation of State management agencies.

Along with that, the Civil Code also does not regulate borrowing but only regulates property loan contracts and property borrowing contracts.

"If you borrow money, you have to pay it back in the same form, or if you borrow property, you have to pay back the exact amount of property, and if there is interest, it must be agreed upon. If it is a loan contract, you have to pay back the borrowed property," Ms. Lan said, adding that for medicine and medical supplies to fight Covid-19, paying back the exact amount now is unreasonable and wasteful.

Ms. Lan said that because there is no legal provision, the Government has submitted a document to the National Assembly Standing Committee in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 99. If allowed, the Government will issue a decree to implement this content.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/bo-truong-y-te-noi-ve-loat-van-de-nong-cua-nganh-20251030101722841.htm