Deputy Minister of Health: 'Directors of public hospitals must be doctors'

Society

Friday, February 3, 2023 12:05 (GMT+7)
12:05 3/2/2023

According to the latest regulations, the director of a state hospital must be a doctor, and among the deputy directors there must be someone with a degree in economics to take care of economics, bidding..., according to Professor, Dr. Tran Van Thuan.

Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan answers reporters' questions at the press conference. Photo: VGP/Nguyen Duc .

On the morning of February 3, the Office of the President held a press conference to announce the Order of the Acting President promulgating the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment passed by the National Assembly at the 2nd extraordinary session.

The representative of the drafting agency presented the basic content of the law, Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health , said that the Law consists of 12 chapters and 121 articles, with some basic new points such as: Improving professional skills, strengthening management of practitioners' activities; improving the quality of service provision of medical examination and treatment facilities, increasing people's access to medical examination and treatment services; innovating some regulations related to conditions to ensure implementation of medical examination and treatment activities...

The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment has many new points.

Notably, the Law has stipulated the expansion of the scope of practice; changing from granting practice licenses based on professional qualifications to granting practice licenses based on professional titles.

At the same time, improve and standardize the skills of practitioners such as: Changing the method of granting practice licenses from granting practice licenses through reviewing documents to requiring a test to assess practice capacity before granting a practice license; stipulating that practice licenses are valid for 5 years and stipulating that updating medical knowledge is one of the conditions for renewing practice licenses.

The Law also stipulates 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, training; applying 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 of practitioners and connect medical examination and treatment results between medical examination and treatment facilities.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Pham Thanh Ha chaired the press conference. Photo: VGP/Nguyen Duc.

Regarding improving the quality of service provision of medical examination and treatment facilities, the Law has added a mandatory provision requiring facilities to 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 to 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 publicizing information on the quality of medical examination and treatment facilities.

Supplementing regulations on medical examination and treatment facilities to 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.

To enhance people's access to medical examination and treatment services, the Law has changed 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.

Develop telemedicine to contribute to achieving universal health coverage by improving patient access to quality, cost-effective health services anytime, anywhere, especially for less serious, chronic diseases that require long-term and regular care...

Soon there will be a circular on the price of medical examination and treatment upon request.

At the press conference, answering questions from the press about the price of medical examination and treatment, Deputy Minister Tran Van Thuan said that the price structure includes 4 factors: direct costs (such as medicine, biological products...); salary, wages; management costs and equipment depreciation costs.

Currently, the new price structure includes two elements including salary and direct costs. In 2022, the Government assigned the Ministry of Health to urgently complete and promulgate the price of medical examination and treatment services upon request. At the same time, complete the technical list to complete the calculation of technical norms, as a basis for correct and complete calculation.

Prof. Dr. Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health, representing the drafting agency, presented the basic content of the law. Photo: VGP/Nguyen Duc.

Regarding the roadmap, according to Deputy Minister Thuan, it will be directed by the Government to balance the socio-economic situation and based on the CPI index assigned by the National Assembly every year. The Ministry of Health is finalizing the circular on medical examination and treatment prices upon request.

This comes from the actual needs of the people and patients and gradually improves the quality of medical examination and treatment, service quality... From there, we try to gradually keep patients who would otherwise have gone abroad for treatment in the country.

It is expected that in the first to second quarter of 2023, a circular on medical examination and treatment prices upon request will be issued when approved by the Government on the basis of publicity, transparency and competition. At the same time, a third factor, namely management costs, will be included in the price of medical examination and treatment services, Deputy Minister Thuan said.

The Ministry will decentralize and delegate maximum authority to medical examination and treatment facilities and plans to propose a calculation method and delegate authority to facilities to make their own decisions.

Regarding the National Medical Council, Mr. Tran Van Thuan informed that because the Minister of Health is busy with many tasks and according to the consensus of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Health, and the consent of the Prime Minister, he was temporarily assigned to run this agency - previously appointed as Vice Chairman of the Council.

Mr. Thuan said the most important thing is to build a set of questions and data to serve as a basis for implementing the assessment of medical examination and treatment practice capacity.

Regarding the question "Does a hospital director need to be a doctor?", Mr. Tran Van Thuan said that according to the latest regulations, the director of a state hospital must be a doctor. The Ministry of Health has directed that among the deputy directors, there must be someone with a degree in economics to take care of economics, logistics, bidding, purchasing, etc.

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Nguyen Duc/ Government Electronic Newspaper

New Law on Medical Examination and Treatment President's power Law on Medical Examination and Treatment National Assembly extraordinary session hospital director doctor