Before the National Assembly, the head of the health sector - Ms. Dao Hong Lan expressed her gratitude to the National Assembly, the Government, the Prime Minister and the ministries and branches in the recent past for their great support in resolving issues in terms of mechanisms and policies.
"It can be said that the health sector is one of the most prioritized sectors regarding mechanisms and policies to ensure medicine, equipment and medical supplies," the Minister affirmed.
During the pandemic, borrowing medicine and medical supplies to fight the pandemic is a reasonable approach (photo TL).
For example, when implementing procurement, other units still have to ensure 3 quotations, but the health sector has regulations that only need one quotation in case of necessity to ensure procurement.
Second, regarding the issue of the lowest price, there has been a document clarifying that in case of necessity, if the medical supplies are not at the lowest price, the health sector can still purchase them if the Scientific Council undertakes and clarifies the contents.
The current Law on Bidding also provides many specific procurement contents for the health sector.
It can be said that with the resolutions of the National Assembly to remove obstacles in terms of drug supply and medical equipment, the supply and purchasing policies have been removed, but why are we still lacking?
Currently, there are 3 places responsible for purchasing medicine. The Ministry of Health is only responsible for centralized bidding at the national level, accounting for only about 16 to 18% of the total, the rest is centralized bidding at the provincial level and the facilities directly take the initiative to purchase for themselves.
During August and October, the Ministry of Health continuously sent documents requesting that localities summarize outstanding issues so that the ministry could continue to submit them to competent authorities for resolution.
Specifically, due to the actual implementation in the locality, many local units assign to bidding units. Doctors who do the profession, do not have deep expertise in bidding, so they are still confused in the process.
The decentralization of authority as the Ministry has fully decentralized to the facilities under the Ministry to be responsible for purchasing. However, in the locality, there are also places where medical facilities can only ensure purchasing under 100 million VND, over 100 million VND must be submitted to the Department of Health, Department of Finance, and Provincial People's Committee for approval, so the purchasing process takes a long time.
"The Ministry hopes that in the coming time, provinces will review this regulation to ensure both management and empowerment of units," said Ms. Dao Hong Lan.
According to Ms. Dao Hong Lan, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) stipulates the form of borrowing and advance payment for medical equipment and supplies. Units are also implementing guidelines for the implementation of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) to ensure long-term sustainability.
The Minister of Health added that in the regulations on procurement and bidding, there is no form of borrowing, borrowing first, paying later, or borrowing and then bidding to pay back. When fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we borrowed test kits, and when the pandemic is over, we cannot pay in kind.
But with the need for epidemic prevention and control, an unprecedented and urgent epidemic, the issue of ensuring people's lives and health is above all, first and foremost, so in the recent past, in practice, there has been a problem of medical facilities having to make advances or borrow money to ensure the need for treatment as well as testing.
Up to this point, Resolution 99 of the National Assembly has assigned the Government to develop and try to solve the problem of borrowing at medical facilities as soon as possible before December 31, 2024.
This is also a difficult task, the Ministry of Health has coordinated with the People's Committees of the provinces to implement this task. The Ministry of Health has sent 2 official dispatches to the People's Committees of the provinces requesting the provinces to report on the current situation of borrowing in the locality as well as in the medical facilities.
Up to now, the Ministry of Health has collected statistics from 48 localities and 7 ministries, branches as well as medical facilities under the Ministry; currently, the total amount of loans according to official reports is 1,693 billion, of which about 754 billion is borrowed for medicines and biological products, and about 939 billion for test kits.
On this basis, classify the types of borrowing, whether there is a bidding contract or a negotiated price or nothing at all, in order to develop a thorough handling plan.
Currently, the Ministry of Health is also assigning units of the Ministry to develop plans and reports to have a mechanism to handle and remove difficulties for medical facilities as well as solve long-term problems.
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