Primary health care drugs are not yet available, the department recommends the ministry to provide early guidance

Người cao tuổi tại TP.HCM đến trạm y tế thăm khám sức khỏe, tuy nhiên do hạn chế thuốc sau khi thăm khám, có đơn thuốc bắt buộc phải đến bệnh viện lấy thuốc - Ảnh: THU HIẾN — Elderly people in Ho Chi Minh City go to the medical station for a health check-up, however, due to medicine restrictions after the examination, if they have a prescription, they must go to the hospital to get the medicine - Photo: THU HIEN

On April 19, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said it had sent an urgent document to the Department of Planning and Finance (Ministry of Health) regarding the implementation of drug procurement bidding in the city.

The Department of Health said that in recent years, medical centers have implemented drug bidding for affiliated medical stations. However, drug procurement has not fully met the needs of medical examination and treatment.

The main reason is that due to the small number of drug purchases by each medical center, many suppliers do not participate in bidding.

According to the plan, the Department of Health will purchase medicine for grassroots health care facilities. Medical centers in need of medicine will combine the estimated quantity into a bid package to be assigned to a purchasing unit.

The Department of Health has assigned Hung Vuong Hospital to carry out bulk purchasing and regulate the number of drugs awarded to medical centers.

Similarly, the procurement of ARV drugs is also facing difficulties. The Department of Health plans to assign the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HCMC) to carry out the combined procurement for the units.

However, there are currently no specific instructions on procurement according to the above regulations such as: authority to decide on procurement, approval of contractor selection plan, implementation process, responsibilities of purchasing parties, etc.

The Department of Health requests the Ministry of Health to provide specific instructions to have a basis for bidding to purchase drugs to meet the practical needs of patients in the city at the present time.

In addition, the Department recommends that the Ministry soon issue a circular guiding drug bidding at public health facilities, implementing the Law on Bidding and Decree No. 24 to synchronously deploy drug bidding work.

Not enough medicine at primary health care facilities, making it difficult for patients

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, drugs used for grassroots health care, including clinics of district health centers, ward and commune health stations in the city, are supplied from drug sources allocated from national and local centralized bidding packages and bidding packages organized by district health centers themselves.

However, most of the remaining medical centers are facing many difficulties in bidding for drugs, leading to drugs at the grassroots medical level not meeting the examination and treatment needs of patients.

This is also the reason why patients with chronic diseases register for health insurance treatment at higher-level hospitals instead of health stations, even though they would prefer to go to a place closer to home.

Retirement and primary health care

Although they thought they would "hang up their swords" after reaching retirement age, many doctors and nurses continue to take on the role of taking care of people's health at the grassroots medical level.

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