Legal documents "resolving difficulties" in bidding and procurement quickly come into practice

After a period of difficulty due to lack of legal corridor, up to this point, Mr. Bui Van Ky, Deputy Director of Ninh Thuan Province Department of Health shared: "We have truly resolved all difficulties in bidding and procurement".

Regarding drugs, Ninh Thuan is currently conducting centralized bidding at the local level and is appraising them to submit to the Provincial People's Committee. For drugs with centralized bidding at the central level, the province is following the process guided by the Ministry of Health . The Ninh Thuan Provincial Department of Health has issued a document requesting assigned units to develop a contractor selection plan that closely follows Circular 07/2024/TT-BYT and Decree No. 24/2024/ND-CP dated February 27, 2024 detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Bidding Law on contractor selection to obtain bidding prices and select good products. For units with limited financial resources, the Ninh Thuan Provincial Department of Health provides guidance on selecting affordable products. For drugs that units need immediately, the Department of Health provides guidance to organize small packages for timely resolution.

Many medical facilities have resolved problems in bidding and purchasing activities.

Regarding medical supplies and equipment, the Ninh Thuan Department of Health is advising the Provincial People's Committee to decentralize according to the Law on Public Investment. For bidding packages of self-determined units, the Department guides units to base on Circular 27 and Decree 24 to conduct bidding via the national network for convenience. For large bidding packages, the Provincial Department of Health advises the Provincial People's Committee to approve and guide the self-bidder units.

With the 2023 Bidding Law and Decree 24, the Government has had very practical insights to find a solution. While the technology has not been determined, the Government has removed difficulties for localities in implementing one-stage, one-envelope, one-document bidding quickly, while implementing the two-stage, two-document bidding method does not ensure accurate regulations and prolongs the time.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Le Ngoc Danh, Head of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Department, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, affirmed that the 2023 Bidding Law solves many difficulties, especially for facilities with limited bidding capacity or a small number of drug lists. Clause 3, Article 53 of the Law allows medical facilities to bid together to select a drug supplier. In addition, in case the needs of medical facilities cannot be combined, hospitals will report to the Department of Health, the Ministry of Health will bid to eventually have drugs for public facilities, serving patients with health insurance cards.

Patients wait for medicine at Children's Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

With Circular 22/2024/TT-BYT regulating the direct payment of medicine and medical equipment costs for people with health insurance cards going to the doctor, newly issued by the Ministry of Health on October 18, 2024, Mr. Danh assessed that the document has "closed the loophole" for hospitals in the procurement process with a transitional period, with the ultimate goal of meeting the highest requirements of patients with health insurance. This has met the reality in some cases where the hospital does not have enough medicine, there is an interruption in supply between two bidding packages, or the number of patients coming in is higher than the actual number, or there is an illness that is not on the list of drugs, then payment for health insurance patients with treatment drugs is practical, consistent with the payment of social insurance.

Master, pharmacist Nguyen Thi Bich Nga, Head of Pharmacy Department, Children's Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City, said that when the Bidding Law is amended in 2023, the hospital expected that in a few months there would be new Decrees and Circulars guiding bidding, so it quickly prepared for situations and took advantage of bidding for drugs in 2024.

When the Ministry of Health issued a Circular guiding the implementation of the Bidding Law 2023, the hospital had a full legal basis to organize drug procurement in many other forms, especially with open bidding and direct procurement. Thanks to that, the hospital was able to implement the largest bidding package. For anti-epidemic, emergency drugs, and drugs for which no contractor could be selected, when Circular 07/2024/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health applied direct procurement, Children's Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City was able to purchase important drugs, meeting the regulations of the Bidding Law 2023 and Circular 07/2024/TT-BYT while waiting for open bidding.

Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital 1 ensures adequate supply of common medicines for medical examination and treatment.

Since May 17, 2024, Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital 1 has implemented a number of major bidding packages in the hospital pharmacy; prepared the largest bidding package for inpatient health insurance and outpatient health insurance; implemented 3 bidding packages for direct procurement of drugs to provide services to patients at the pharmacy. Currently, the hospital has also implemented 2 open bidding packages through the network to provide services to patients at the pharmacy worth 170 billion VND.

The Department of Health and the Ministry of Health have promptly answered questions from hospitals about the Decree and Circular guiding the implementation of the 2023 Bidding Law so that hospitals can boldly implement them based on their own capacity.

“For those who work at the grassroots level and have participated in drug procurement bidding for many years, I see that with legal documents guiding procurement, specifically on bidding, there is a full legal corridor. Each hospital, depending on the medical examination and treatment situation, depending on the list of drugs and supplies, will flexibly apply bidding forms to ensure adequate supply, bringing economic efficiency to the management agency, hospital and people,” said Master, pharmacist Nguyen Thi Bich Nga.

Publication date : October 25, 2024
Implementing organization : HONG MINH
Content : THAO LE - THIEN LAM
Presented by : THIEN LAM
Photo : THIEN LAM - PROVIDED BY HOSPITAL

Source: https://nhandan.vn/tao-hanh-lang-phap-ly-nhanh-chong-dua-vao-thuc-tien-de-go-kho-ve-dau-thau-mua-sam-post838482.html