On December 11, at a regular press conference in An Giang province, Doctor Doan Thanh Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Health of An Giang province - informed about the work of ensuring drugs and medical supplies for medical examination and treatment in the province.
According to Mr. Hung, the old district health centers will conduct drug procurement according to the results of the successful centralized bidding at the local level in the period of 2023-2025 (expired in November 2025). The Department of Health has issued a document to request health units to review, balance, and plan drug purchases before the decision to win the bid expires, reserve the quantity of drugs in stock to ensure enough quantity to serve the needs of medical examination and treatment of the unit while waiting for the results of local centralized bidding for the period 2025-2027.
Therefore, health units in the province have made stock purchases until the end of April 2026, so there should be absolutely no shortage of drugs.
After merging the two provinces of An Giang and Kien Giang into the new An Giang province, the Department of Health has also proactively regulated the results of the local centralized drug bidding of Kien Giang province (expired in the first 6 months of 2026) for medical units in the old An Giang province to ensure enough drugs for people's health care.
Units are also proactive in developing plans to purchase additional drugs to ensure adequate supply of drugs for patients coming for examination and treatment.
However, according to Mr. Hung, the shortage of some drugs may occur locally in a short time, so far the Department of Health has not specifically reported this.
Mr. Hung said that some reasons may cause local drug shortages in some units such as: Legal documents on bidding are constantly amended and supplemented in 2025, along with the merger of An Giang province and Kien Giang province, into the new An Giang province, so the concentrated bidding plan must be rebuilt, slowing down the progress compared to the original plan of the old An Giang province. There are some drugs on the list of drugs with national price negotiations but have not yet had the winning bid results or have not been able to negotiate prices, doctors can use other drugs to replace those in the list of drugs with local bidding but the patient does not agree, or those drugs exceed the treatment line of the medical examination facility.
The consultation and use of drugs by health workers for patients is not yet complete, mainly according to the patient's psychology (name of the drug, color of the drug that the patient is used to, etc.) while there are other drugs with the same active ingredients, content and uses, so they are not advised to replace them.
In addition, the situation of exceeding the expected health insurance spending in 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, causing the unit to lack funding to only pay to drug suppliers, also causing a local shortage of drugs in a short time.
Regarding the solution, the Deputy Director of the Department of Health said that currently, the local-level centralized bidding packages for the 2025-2027 period, which An Giang General Hospital is a centralized procurement unit, are being implemented correctly and ahead of schedule (the plan for April 2026, possibly in March 2026), so it will be timely for medical units in the whole An Giang province to purchase and serve treatment.
The centralized drug bidding at the local level has overcome the situation of fragility and subdivision of the bidding package, basically ensuring adequate and timely supply of drugs to medical examination and treatment facilities, especially essential drugs, specialty drugs, drugs that must be specifically controlled, preventing widespread drug shortages. In addition, health units need to proactively develop a plan to purchase drugs not on the national centralized drug list, localized centralized drugs and drugs that have not won bids to ensure adequate supply of drugs for patients.
