The Deputy Nguyen Thi Thuy (Bac Kan) stated that basing on the reflection of hospital pharmacies, there are still difficulties in bidding for drugs. In fact, there are still times when the people cannot buy drugs at hospital pharmacies after examination, affecting their treatment. Can  the Minister explain where this problem comes from and when it will be resolved ?

Responding to the deputies, Minister Dao Hong Lan said that in recent times, the NA and Government have issued various policies to solve the problem of drug shortages. In particular, the 2023 Bidding Law has introduced many policies to solve the problem of drug procurement and bidding at the medical facilities.

Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan speaks at the NA’ s question and answer session.  (Photo quochoi.vn)

The Minister Dao Hong Lan informed that there is only one content related to hospital pharmacies that is stuck. Because, previously, hospital pharmacies were self-managed by hospitals, organizing the purchase of drugs to sell to the people when needed, not funded by the budget, nor by health insurance sources.

However, the 2023 Bidding Law stipulates that hospital pharmacies must also conduct bidding. The needs of patients are very diverse. Therefore, hospital pharmacies face many difficulties. Medical facilities reflect this content in the revised Pharmacy Law. The Pharmacy Law to be approved at this session shall amend the contents related to hospital pharmacies. That is, handing over the initiative to medical facilities, ensuring publicity, transparency, and accountability. On that basis, providing medicine sources for the people.

Participating in question and answer session, the Deputy To Van Tam (Kon Tum) stated that the lack of drugs affects the quality of medical examination and treatment, affecting patients. In the past, there were legal bottlenecks, but recently, the NA and the Government have made many efforts to remove them, and the basic bottlenecks have been resolved. However, the shortage of drugs still exists. So is there a lack of responsibility among those responsible people for bidding at these medical facilities? If so, how will the Minister of Health resolve it?

Minister Dao Hong Lan answered: There are currently three levels of drug bidding: Centralized procurement at the Ministry of Health; procurement at the provincial level and assigned to localities to direct implementation; procurement at medical facilities.

With the difficulties in the recent past, the NA and the Government have removed many of them and the Bidding Law has taken effect since January 1st, 2024. However, this is the first year of implementing the new regulations. Therefore, the Ministry of Health has worked with localities, regularly conducting online conferences to deploy instructions for implementing the Law on Bidding in 63 provinces and cities. The  difficulties are caused by new regulations, so, researching, studying, and arranging human resources for implementation is still difficult...

Therefore, in addition to training all localities to solve difficulties, the Ministry of Health is developing a handbook on drug bidding, providing specific, step-by-step instructions so that localities have enough capacity to implement.

In addition, in practice, at some units, there are still cadres who do not dare to think, dare to do and are afraid of making mistakes, so the implementation process is entangled. The Ministry of Health has also issued the Directive No. 24 stipulating the responsibilities of the heads of all medical examination and treatment facilities to fully perform their responsibilities related to ensuring adequate medicines, equipment, and medical supplies.

This content has also been stipulated at the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) and this is a mandatory responsibility. At the same time, the Ministry of Health shall continue to support the leaders in the implementation process and any remaining problems shall continue to be resolved.