Massive violations
On October 31, the Quang Nam Provincial Inspectorate announced that it had just issued a conclusion pointing out a series of violations at the Quang Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital (located at 13 Nguyen Chi Thanh, Tam Ky City) from 2019 to 2022.
According to the conclusion, since applying the 75% financial autonomy mechanism (2019), Quang Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital has continuously lost tens of billions of VND; in 2022 alone, it only collected 4.9/27.7 billion VND - reaching 18%. In 2023 - 2024, it continued to lose revenue, and had to request the province to compensate for salary payments.
Sharp decline in revenue, along with persistent shortages of drugs and supplies, and failure to attract patients have put the hospital in difficulty, leading to prolonged unpaid wages (from July to December 2023). At the end of 2023, Quang Nam province had to provide an additional 7 billion VND for "rescue".
The inspector also pointed out that the hospital had "divided" a series of bid packages worth less than 100 million VND to designate bidders, instead of combining them into one bid package worth over 100 million VND to offer a shortened competitive bid.
Many bidding documents do not meet regulations, equipment and materials do not have certificates of origin, quality management, and do not guarantee quantity and type; acceptance work is sketchy, equipment delivered is lacking and not in accordance with the contract.
In addition, the hospital imported 3,000 tubes of Milgamma N, but only used 82 tubes, leaving 2,918 tubes expired, causing waste of medicine and damage to the hospital.
To date, the hospital still owes more than 1 billion VND when constructing the project to renovate, repair and upgrade the Geriatric Department since 2020; has not yet repaid the State budget more than 3.4 billion VND due to improper spending, according to the request of the State Audit from 2018 to present.
Revoke hospital director's certificate of merit
As for Mr. Ngo Ngoc Toan, appointed as Director of Quang Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital from November 2019 to present, he has also committed many violations - according to the conclusion of the Provincial Inspectorate.
From mid-2020 to early 2021, Mr. Ngo Ngoc Toan legalized the use of his certificate to practice under his name for Quang Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital, with a "certificate rental" fee of 5 million VND/month, profiting from the hospital's welfare fund of 40 million VND.
"Mr. Ngo Ngoc Toan is the director, assigned by the Department of Health to manage and take the highest responsibility for professional matters at the hospital.
Therefore, the payment to Mr. Toan with the content of being responsible for professional activities according to the hospital's operating license is not in accordance with regulations and violates prohibited acts of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment" - according to Quang Nam Inspectorate.
The provincial inspector also determined that Mr. Toan, representing the hospital, signed a contract with Dr. Tran Nhung, a specialist in Rehabilitation (currently working at Thang Hoa Hospital, Quang Nam) to work outside of office hours at the Traditional Medicine Hospital, which was against regulations, causing a loss of 225 million VND.
Despite a series of violations, apart from urging and reminding, up to now, the collective and individuals involved in violations at Quang Nam Provincial Traditional Medicine Hospital have not received any disciplinary action.
In 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, the Director of Quang Nam Traditional Medicine Hospital was still evaluated and classified by the Department of Health as having completed his tasks well (in 2022, he completed his tasks).
“In 2023, Mr. Toan was also issued a certificate of merit by the Department of Health for the Hospital Director for completing his tasks well, then the department met and revoked the certificate of merit. However, the classification results remained the same,” said a source from Lao Dong.
