Health insurance patients have to buy medicine outside.
On December 11, speaking to a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Hoang Van Tien (47 years old, residing in Vinh City) said that during his treatment at a hospital in Vinh City, the doctor informed him that the medicine he was using was temporarily out of stock, so he asked the patient to buy the medicine himself.
“I have a health insurance card, so it covers 100%. But the doctor explained that the hospital ran out of medicine and was waiting for the bidding results, so he asked for understanding. I had to go out and buy it, even though I was sick and in difficulty,” said Mr. Tien.
According to information from the Nghe An Department of Health, recently, the industry has grasped the shortage of drugs and medical supplies in hospitals and has taken many measures to overcome and rectify the situation.
According to Nghe An Department of Health, there is still a local shortage of drugs and medical supplies at some public hospitals.
In 2024, 8 units reported drug shortages with 379 missing items, accounting for 2.97% of the 2024 bidding plan.
The above situation leads to difficulties for medical facilities and disadvantages for patients. Although in principle, people with health insurance cards are covered by insurance, many patients still have to buy medicine outside.
According to the reflection of Nghe An people, there are individual cases of medical supply brokers coming into patients' rooms to solicit.
Drug shortage due to bidding problems
According to Dr. Le Thi Hoai Chung - Director of Nghe An Department of Health, the main reason for the shortage of drugs and medical supplies in hospitals is that many items cannot be selected for contractors.
Conflicts in some parts of the world and some factors disrupting the global supply chain of goods lead to disruptions in the supply of raw materials.
Faced with the above situation, Nghe An health sector has taken many active and proactive measures to resolve and overcome it.
Nghe An Department of Health has conducted centralized bidding for drugs on the list of drugs that must be centrally bid at the local level. For the remaining items, the Department directed medical units to develop and organize their own bidding to suit their unit's needs.
In addition, the Department of Health has organized bidding training courses for units in the whole industry; established teams to support hospitals and medical facilities, developed sample bidding procedures for units to implement; directed and guided units to ensure progress and compliance with legal regulations.
The Department of Health has also requested units to actively and proactively deploy necessary measures to properly implement the bidding roadmap for the procurement of chemicals and medical supplies.
According to statistics, in the first 9 months of 2024, medical facilities in Nghe An province used 6,447 items with a total drug cost of about 928 billion VND. The bid winning rate reached over 75%, basically meeting the needs of medical examination and treatment for people.
Nghe An currently has more than 531 health insurance examination and treatment facilities covering all levels. In 2024, there will be more than 5.3 million health insurance examination and treatment visits. The cost of medical examination and treatment is more than VND 5,330 billion, of which health insurance covers nearly VND 4,817 billion.
