Promulgating the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment

Đảng Cộng Sản•03/02/2023

On the morning of February 3rd, the Office of the President held a press conference to announce the Acting President's Order on the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, which was passed by the 15th National Assembly, 2nd Extraordinary Session, on January 9th, 2023. Deputy Head of the Office of 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 Law No. 15/2023/QH15 on Medical Examination and Treatment consists of 12 chapters and 121 articles regulating the rights and obligations of patients, 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 specialized techniques in medical examination and treatment; application of new techniques, new methods and clinical trials; professional and technical errors; conditions ensuring the operation of medical examination and treatment…

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

To strengthen the quality management of medical examination and treatment services provided by practitioners and to institutionalize the Party's viewpoint on medical examination and treatment work, 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 document review to requiring a professional competency assessment before granting a practice license; (2) Stipulating that practice licenses are valid for 5 years and stipulating that updating medical knowledge is one of the conditions for renewing practice licenses; (3) Stipulating that foreigners practicing long-term in Vietnam and providing medical examination and treatment to Vietnamese people must use Vietnamese proficiently in medical examination and treatment except in some cases of cooperation, exchange of experts, technology transfer, and training; (4) Regulations on the application of electronic prescriptions, electronic medical records and this information must be connected to the Information System on the management of medical examination and treatment activities to control and monitor the quality of service provision by practitioners and to share medical examination and treatment results between medical examination and treatment facilities.

Furthermore, to improve the quality of services provided by medical examination and treatment facilities, the Law adds a mandatory requirement for facilities to conduct self-assessments of the quality of medical examination and treatment according to the basic quality standards issued by the Ministry of Health on an annual basis and to update the self-assessment results on the Information System for the Management of Medical Examination and Treatment Activities. This serves as a basis for inspection, evaluation, and public disclosure of information on the quality level of medical examination and treatment facilities. The Law also adds a regulation requiring medical examination and treatment facilities to apply information technology with the aim of gradually linking medical examination and treatment results between facilities, facilitating access for patients, and also as a solution for managing the professional activities of organizations and individuals.

Regarding enhancing people's access to medical examination and treatment services: Changing from 4 specialized levels to 3 specialized levels; Allowing private multi-specialty clinics in areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions to provide inpatient beds for monitoring and treatment, but for a maximum of 72 hours; Developing telemedicine 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 requiring long-term and regular care.

Regarding regulations related to practitioners, three additional positions require a practice license (clinical nutritionist, pre-hospital emergency medical technician, clinical psychologist); the condition for obtaining a practice license is that the holder must be assessed as competent by the National Medical Council during a professional competency assessment examination; specific regulations are established regarding the cases and delegation of authority for issuing, renewing, extending, adjusting, suspending, and revoking practice licenses; the validity period of the practice license is 5 years from the date of issuance, renewal, extension, or adjustment...

The law also adds regulations on forms of resource mobilization, affirming that medical examination and treatment facilities are allowed to: borrow capital to invest in infrastructure and medical equipment; lease or rent assets, clinical services, paraclinical services, non-medical services, pharmacy services, and manage and operate medical examination and treatment facilities; specify the factors that determine the price of medical examination and treatment services, and regulate the price of medical examination and treatment services for state-owned medical examination and treatment facilities to ensure that the price is calculated accurately and fully according to the roadmap prescribed by the Government to cover the costs of providing medical examination and treatment and to accumulate capital…

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

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