National Assembly's Chairman Vương Đình Huệ (centre) at the NA’s legal symposium on Friday morning.—VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tấn

HÀ NỘI — The National Assembly’s Supervision Team on the mobilisation, management and use of resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control needs to focus on monitoring the receipt and purchase of vaccines, medical equipment as well as their distribution and use.

National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vương Đình Huệ told the team at the NA Standing Committee’s legal symposium on Friday morning that it is also necessary to concentrate on supervising the research and production of domestic vaccines and medical equipment as well as the country’s self-reliance capacity in pandemic prevention and control.

The team should avoid wasting resources and pay more attention to the use of State resources in fighting COVID-19, he said.

Regarding the implementation of policies and laws on grassroots healthcare, Huệ also ordered the team to consider whether current human resources for the commune health system meet requirements, he said.

The team has to assess the effectiveness of the ward and commune health model associated with the family doctor model, he said.

For the implementation of policies and laws on preventive medicine, the team is assigned to clarify how the locality allocates its capital for preventive medicine, he added. As per regulations, a locality must allocate at least 30 per cent of its budget for health issues to preventive medicine.

The team is told to find out the causes why the support package in Resolution No 43/2022/QH15 to increase investment in preventive medicine has not been fully utilised, he said.

Moreover, it is required to recommend a suitable investment level for grassroots health and preventive medicine, he said.

He asked the team to thoroughly use existing documents of inspection and auditing agencies to avoid overlaps.

The supervision must not affect the normal operation of the health system and relevant agencies, he added.

Speaking at the opening of the session, NA Deputy Chairman Nguyễn Khắc Định said this is a very broad topic of supervision, the contents are not closely related, consisting of supervising the mobilisation, management and use of resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control; and supervising legal policies with grassroots health and preventive medicine.

The team will monitor the mobilisation, management and use of resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control nationwide between January 1, 2020 to the end of December 31, 2022.

It will supervise the implementation of policies and laws on grassroots health and preventive medicine nationwide from January 1, 2018 to the end of December 31, 2022.

Định said there are a number of available documents to serve the supervision, including an Audit Report on mobilising resources for COVID-19 prevention until the end of 2021.

Additionally, the Party Central Committee's Inspection Commission and the Government Inspectorate are also inspecting the content, so the team will take advantage of the results, he said.

In the health sector, the National Assembly, the Government, and the Ministry of Health are considering amending a number of health policies, so through monitoring, the team will contribute to the improvement of policies and laws, he said.

Initially, the team has listed 103 documents of the Party, the National Assembly and the Government related to the mobilisation of resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control; and 59 documents on grassroots health care and preventive medicine as the basis for supervising implementation, he said.

He asked the NA Standing Committee for comments on the scope of supervision and other related contents.

The team is scheduled to directly supervise 14 ministries and sectors (Finance; Planning and Investment; Health; Home Affairs; Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs; National Defence; Public Security; Education and Training; Information and Communication; Culture, Sports and Tourism; State Audit; Government Inspector; State Bank of Vietnam; and Việt Nam Social Security); and 12 provinces and cities (Hà Nội; HCM City; Hưng Yên; Quảng Ninh; Yên Bái; Nghệ An; Huế (or Đà Nẵng); Kon Tum; Phú Yên; An Giang (or Đồng Tháp); Cần Thơ; and Tây Ninh (or Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu).

Secretary General of the National Assembly, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Office Bùi Văn Cường highly appreciated the careful preparation of the team before implementing the supervision.

He suggested the team pay more attention to the mobilisation of resources for COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control, including resources from organisations and individuals from both Việt Nam and foreign countries.

He added that policies and laws on preventive medicine and grassroots healthcare are believed to have many shortcomings.

Therefore, it is recommended to consider time and methods of monitoring to suit each locality. It is necessary to establish sub-teams to assist the supervision team, he said. — VNS