The Ministry of Health has just provided information on some new points in the Circular regulating prescriptions and prescriptions of pharmaceuticals and biological products for outpatient treatment at medical examination and treatment facilities No. 26/2025/TT-BYT dated June 30, 2025.
Outpatient prescription can last up to 90 days
Issued a List of diseases and groups of diseases eligible for outpatient prescriptions over thirty (30) days, including 252 diseases and groups of diseases. For diseases in this List, the person prescribing the drug decides the number of days of use of each drug in the prescription based on the clinical condition and the patient's stable level to prescribe the drug with the maximum number of days of use of each drug not exceeding Ninety (90) days.
Thus, in the case where documents used as a basis for prescribing drugs such as drug use instructions, diagnosis and treatment instructions, and Vietnamese national pharmaceutical certificates do not have instructions on the number of days for drug use, the prescribing person has a basis to decide on a prescription of up to 90 days for the patient accordingly.
Compulsory prescription with personal identification number or citizen identification number of the patient
According to the Circular, the Ministry of Health also requires adding some schools of compulsory information to the prescription such as:
Information about the personal identification number or citizen identification number or the patient's identification number or passport number. Timely update in the spirit of connecting electronic data of citizens: Vietnamese citizens provide personal identification numbers without having to declare information about gender, date of birth, and permanent address.
The prescribing person needs to clearly state the number of uses each time and the number of uses per day, the number of days of drug use in the prescription for the patient.
The Circular also adjusts regulations on cases where patients go to many specialties for examination in one examination: The hospital decides on the prescribing person, ensuring that patients have only one prescription, safety (no overlap, drug interaction) and the effectiveness and reasonableness of the prescription.
Abandoning medical examination book samples
Notably, the Ministry of Health has stipulated that the medical examination book sample in the Circular is removed, patients coming for medical examination at the facility or ending inpatient treatment are prescribed in the prescription and managed according to the appropriate medical records.
The Circular also updates new regulations according to the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 (such as Prescribing drugs must comply with technical regulations issued or recognized by the Minister of Health;
The use of drugs in medical examination and treatment must ensure the following principles: a) Directing the use of drugs when truly necessary, for the right purpose, safely, reasonably and effectively;
The prescription of drugs must be consistent with the diagnosis of diseases and conditions of patients) and the amended and supplemented Pharmacy Law in 2024 (as prescribed for the treatment of addictive drugs, psychopaths, and precursors that have been sold/ored to patients but are not fully consumed or die).
With this new policy, it is hoped that millions of chronic patients will have less travel burden, save time and costs, and maintain long-term quality health care.
Extending the time for prescribing drugs for chronic patients is considered a breakthrough change, removing the inconveniences that have lasted for many years, especially for patients in remote areas, the elderly or people with difficulty traveling.
