Announcement of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment

On the morning of February 3, the Office of the President held a press conference to announce the Order of the Acting President on the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, which was passed by the 15th National Assembly, 2nd Extraordinary Session on January 9, 2023. Deputy Head of the Officeof the President Pham Thanh Ha chaired the press conference.

Introducing some basic contents of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan said that the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 consists of 12 chapters and 121 articles stipulating the rights and obligations of patients and medical practitioners; medical examination and treatment facilities; technical expertise in medical examination and treatment; medical examination and treatment using traditional medicine and combining traditional medicine with modern medicine; humanitarian medical examination and treatment, not for profit; transfer of professional techniques in medical examination and treatment; application of new techniques, new methods and clinical trials; technical expertise errors; conditions to ensure medical examination and treatment activities, etc.

The Law stipulates that the State plays a leading role in developing medical examination and treatment activities; mobilizing social resources for medical examination and treatment activities.

To strengthen the management of the quality of medical examination and treatment services provided by practitioners and institutionalize the Party's viewpoint on medical examination and treatment, the Law stipulates: Expanding the scope of practice: Changing from granting practice licenses based on professional qualifications to granting practice licenses based on professional titles. Improving and standardizing the skills of practitioners: (1) Changing the method of granting practice licenses from granting practice licenses through reviewing records to requiring a test to assess professional capacity before granting a practice license; (2) Stipulating that a practice license is valid for 5 years and that updating medical knowledge is one of the conditions for extending a practice license; (3) Stipulating that foreigners practicing long-term in Vietnam and examining and treating Vietnamese people must use Vietnamese fluently in medical examination and treatment, except in some cases of cooperation in exchanging experts, transferring techniques, and training; (4) Regulations on the application of electronic prescriptions, electronic medical records and this information must be connected to the Information System on management of medical examination and treatment activities to control and monitor the quality of service provision by practitioners and to connect medical examination and treatment results between medical examination and treatment facilities.

Along with that, in order to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment services, the Law supplements the mandatory provision that the facility must self-assess the quality of medical examination and treatment according to the basic quality standards issued by the Ministry of Health periodically every year and must update the self-assessment results to the Information System on management of medical examination and treatment activities to serve as a basis for inspection, assessment as well as public disclosure of information on the quality level of medical examination and treatment facilities; Supplementing the provision that medical examination and treatment facilities must apply information technology with the aim of gradually connecting medical examination and treatment results between medical examination and treatment facilities, creating convenience for patients, and at the same time being a solution to manage the practice activities of organizations and individuals.

Regarding enhancing people's access to medical examination and treatment services: Changing from 4 professional levels to 3 professional levels; Allowing private clinics in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions to organize beds for monitoring and treating patients but not exceeding 72 hours; Developing remote medical examination and treatment activities to contribute to achieving universal health coverage by improving patients' access to quality, cost-effective medical services anytime, anywhere, especially for less serious, chronic diseases that require long-term and regular care.

Regarding regulations related to practitioners, 3 more positions must have a practice license (clinical nutritionist, outpatient emergency worker, clinical psychologist); the condition for being granted a practice license is to be assessed by the National Medical Council as having sufficient practice capacity at the practice capacity assessment exam; specifying specific cases and decentralizing the authority to issue new, reissue, extend, adjust practice licenses, suspend practice, revoke practice licenses; the term of the practice license (5 years from the date of new issuance, reissue, extension, adjustment)...

The Law also supplements regulations on forms of resource mobilization, which affirms that medical examination and treatment facilities are allowed to: Borrow capital to invest in infrastructure works and medical equipment; Rent or lease assets, clinical services, paraclinical services, non-medical services, pharmacy services, and manage and operate medical examination and treatment facilities; Specify the factors that form the price of medical examination and treatment services and at the same time stipulate the price of medical examination and treatment for State medical examination and treatment facilities to ensure that they are calculated correctly and fully according to the roadmap prescribed by the Government to offset the cost of medical examination and treatment and have accumulation...

Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 takes effect from January 1, 2024./.

Source link