Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính talks with a patient in Bạch Mai Hospital during his visit on Tuesday. VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI – Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính visited some tertiary referral hospitals in Hà Nội yesterday to review and solve difficulties and obstacles with medicines, medical supplies, equipment, and biological products.

The PM visited the A9 Emergency Centre of Bạch Mai Hospital and listened to the opinions of the medical workers, patients, and their families about the centre’s situation and medical services.

Doctor Nguyễn Anh Tuấn, the centre’s director, expressed his gratitude to the Government and the Prime Minister for listening to opinions, promptly promulgating Resolution 30 and Decree 07, removing difficulties and obstacles in procurement and bidding for medicines, medical supplies, and equipment.

Tuấn said doctors, nurses, and staff felt much more secure after these decisions were issued.

A series of difficulties and problems have been solved step by step, and medicines, medical supplies, and equipment have been relatively adequate so far, Tuấn said.

Before Resolution 30 and Decree 07 were issued, many batches of medicines won bids but failed to clear customs, and many pieces of equipment purchased and installed in the form of joint ventures had to stop working.

Now all machinery has returned to normal operation, the director said.

In the past, equipment after the expiration of the joint venture had to go through very complicated procedures before it could become the hospital's property.

Thanks to the resolution, handing over equipment after the expiration of the joint venture period to hospitals is easier, contributing to healthcare service improvement, the hospital’s leader said.

Thanks to Resolution 30, the business side donated this system after the expiration of the joint venture.

However, the hospital's leader said that some types of diagnostic equipment still do not meet the needs of medical examination and treatment, especially in other hospital departments.

The hospital leader suggested that the government should further issue decrees and circulars on procurement and bidding with higher legal effect and implement accurate and adequate calculation of medical service prices.

After visiting Bạch Mai Hospital, the PM made an unexpected inspection at the National Children's Hospital, as the season is changing and the number of child patients with respiratory diseases has increased recently.

The hospital leader said that a series of difficulties related to previous regulations had been removed, and there were no longer any major problems in procurement and bidding.

The hospital has opened 27 bidding packages for consumable supplies and major equipment repair.

Also, PM Chính visited the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases because the COVID-19 epidemic could still develop complicatedly and infectious diseases spreading due to weather changes.

In the meeting, the hospital leader also said that basic procurement and bidding difficulties and problems had been resolved, but some types of biological products and supplies are insufficient in case of an outbreak of infectious diseases.

Chính praised the efforts and very respectable results that the hospitals have achieved over the past time and suggested that hospitals continue to promote a sense of responsibility in bidding and auctioning medicines, supplies, biological products, and equipment to ensure transparency, providing the best service to the people.

He asked the Ministry of Health to urgently develop and submit to the Government for issuing decrees guiding the implementation of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.

The ministry must strengthen digital transformation in bidding and procurement to save time, simplify procedures, and prevent corruption.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Health to urgently guide by the second quarter of this year to issue a circular on implementing the accurate and adequate calculation of medical service prices.

The ministry should study and immediately set up centres for stockpiling rare drugs in six socio-economic regions across the country and assign a leading hospital to manage and coordinate.

The Ministry of Health and related agencies were asked to hold a meeting within the week to hand over autonomy to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and urgently solve problems related to biological products and drugs for COVID-19 prevention.

The Ministry of Health and relevant agencies were also requested to urgently deal with obstacles to completing investment projects to build facilities No. 2 of Bạch Mai and Việt Đức hospitals. VNS