Creating a legal corridor, removing obstacles in medical bidding

Decree 24/2024/ND-CP (Decree 24) has just been signed by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, specifying the regulations that the Law has assigned the Government to detail, such as building a mechanism for selecting suitable contractors to promote domestic enterprise development, creating jobs for vulnerable labor groups, encouraging the purchase of innovative products, green procurement to improve socio -economic efficiency, environmental protection, and sustainable development.

In addition, Decree 24 has detailed regulations on the order and procedures for selecting contractors on the basis of continuing to promote decentralization and delegation of authority to investors; reducing time and costs for organizing contractor selection; continuing to strengthen the application of information technology - online bidding to improve publicity, transparency and economic efficiency.

During the process of developing and completing Decree 24, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired 3 meetings with leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment , Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and a number of related ministries and branches; representatives of a number of central hospitals, local health departments, private hospitals, experts... to listen to feedback, recommendations, and propose solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles in the practical implementation of procurement and bidding for drugs, medical supplies and equipment; directed the agency drafting Decree 24 to absorb as much as possible to fundamentally resolve and create the most favorable conditions for hospitals and medical facilities (both public and private) in bidding for procurement of drugs, medical supplies and medical equipment...

Accordingly, Decree 24 has many provisions to maximally resolve the shortcomings in bidding that hospitals have reported, following the direction of the Prime Minister in Directive No. 27/CT-TTg dated October 27, 2023, continuing to promote reform solutions and improve the efficiency of handling administrative procedures, providing public services to serve people and businesses. Accordingly, ministries, branches and localities need to continue to promote more drastic reforms, improve the efficiency of cutting and simplifying administrative procedures, along with strengthening decentralization and authorization in handling administrative procedures.

Notably, Decree 24 clearly stipulates bidding packages designated for urgent cases, patient rescue, and disease prevention and control to ensure that hospitals can immediately purchase drugs for their work without having to go through time-consuming bidding procedures.

Policy - Creating a legal corridor, removing obstacles in medical bidding — Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a meeting with leaders of the Ministry of Health, a number of ministries, branches, health departments, and hospitals to listen to reports and give opinions on the draft Decree guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the 2023 Law on Bidding on contractor selection, on February 21, 2024.

Regarding centralized drug bidding, to overcome the previous situation where only one bidder won the bid to supply drugs in large quantities and with a wide delivery range, leading to some cases where the bidder was not capable of performing the contract, Decree 24 has added a provision allowing the selection of more than one winning bidder so that if the first-ranked bidder is no longer able to supply, the investor can immediately sign a contract with the next-ranked bidder. The investor is invited to bid in a way that allows bidders to offer quantities according to their supply capacity without necessarily having to offer the exact quantity of drugs stated in the bidding documents.

In the case of drugs on the list of centralized procurement but bidding has not been organized or bidding has been organized but the contractor has not been selected or the previously signed framework agreement has expired, the hospital is allowed to purchase according to the notice of the unit assigned to centralized procurement to meet the demand for use within a maximum period of 12 months and the health insurance fund will pay according to the contract price.

In addition, in case the contractor has won the bid (including the bid for the centralized bidding package) but during the contract implementation process cannot continue to supply drugs, the hospital is allowed to appoint another contractor to perform the remaining work of the bidding package without any limit on the number of assigned bids.

The above regulations will create initiative and flexibility for hospitals in purchasing drugs for medical examination and treatment; basically overcoming the shortage of drugs in the list of centralized bidding at national and local levels.

The highest quote is selected to make the bid price.

Regarding the determination of the bid price, Decree 24 stipulates that the collection of quotations is one of the 7 bases for determining the bid price. In the medical field, in case there is more than 1 quotation, the investor can choose the highest quotation that is suitable with the financial capacity and professional requirements to make the bid price; for other fields, only the average value of the quotations can be used as the bid price.

The above regulations help hospitals choose good quality products that suit their professional needs and financial capabilities.

To ensure compliance with the specific characteristics of procurement at medical examination and treatment facilities, especially those in remote areas with few personnel, Decree 24 also stipulates that in cases where the investor does not have personnel meeting the requirements or cannot select a consulting contractor to form an expert team or appraisal team, it has the right to mobilize and assign work to personnel such as doctors, pharmacists, managers or invite officials from the Department of Health, Ministry of Health and experts in the medical field to participate in the expert team or appraisal team to carry out procurement activities.

In addition, Decree 24 specifically stipulates the responsibility of the Ministry of Health in issuing sample documents for selecting contractors for drugs; providing guidance on principles, criteria, and summarizing needs to create a list of centrally purchased drugs; time limit for compiling the list, time limit for issuing the list; expected time for organizing contractor selection, expected time for publicizing information on framework agreements and contracts in centralized procurement.

The above regulations aim to enhance publicity, transparency and consistency in drug bidding in general and to promulgate the list, time for centralized bidding, information on framework agreements and contracts in centralized procurement for centralized procurement so that hospitals can proactively carry out bidding for drugs not on the centralized procurement list and promptly sign contracts with winning bidders through centralized bidding.

Policy - Creating a legal corridor, removing obstacles in medical bidding (Figure 2). — Decree 24 demonstrates the Government's special concern for the health sector and determination not to let there be a shortage of medicines and medical supplies.

The 2023 Bidding Law also specifically stipulates cases where hospital directors can decide on purchases without having to organize a bidding; allow bidding documents to state the origin of goods to select goods of good quality; apply the option to buy more goods immediately without having to organize a bidding; negotiate prices, and purchase centrally with rare drugs, drugs that need to be purchased in small quantities (such as drugs to treat poisoning, snake bites, etc.) and many other new contents.

Decree 24 was issued by the Government and took effect from February 27, 2024, on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of Vietnam Doctors' Day, demonstrating the Government's special attention to the health sector and its determination not to let there be a shortage of drugs and medical supplies, creating a synchronous legal basis. From there, medical examination and treatment facilities are confident and proactive in purchasing drugs, supplies and medical equipment; especially ensuring adequate drugs, supplies, chemicals and medical equipment to better serve medical examination and treatment for the goal of protecting lives and taking good care of people's health.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also directed the Ministry of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies to urgently submit to the Prime Minister for promulgation a Directive on enhancing the capacity to implement the 2023 Law on Bidding and Decree 24 to organize bidding for the procurement of medicines, supplies and medical equipment at public medical facilities nationwide to promptly meet the needs of medical examination and treatment to serve the care and protection of people's health .

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