National Assembly Delegate of Nghe An: Specific regulations to avoid technical abuse in medical examination and treatment

During the discussion session on the afternoon of May 26, the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) received many opinions from National Assembly deputies on related contents.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An chaired the discussion at Group 11 including delegates from the provinces: Bac Giang, Khanh Hoa and Nghe An.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province chaired the discussion at Group 11. Photo: Phan Hau

Commenting on this draft law, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province assessed that the content of the law does not mention preventive medical activities. However, the draft law has many provisions related to this content, so it is proposed not to include provisions on preventive medical activities.

In addition, when promulgating the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended), it is also necessary to soon develop a Law on Disease Prevention and Health Care according to the orientation of the law and ordinance development program issued by the National Assembly Standing Committee. Because the issue of disease prevention is a matter of great concern and also to ensure consistency with the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended). "If we spend one dong on disease prevention, we can reduce three dong in treatment", said the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province spoke. Photo: Phan Hau

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung also highly agreed with the new point included in the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) which is to assign the National Medical Council to organize exams and grant and revoke practice licenses of individuals.

“The National Medical Council was established in 2020 and has issued its operating regulations. Thus, I see that the Government has made preparations in advance regarding the issuance of practice licenses,” the female delegate said, adding that this is a good solution, ensuring independence and separation from the State management of the Ministry of Health regarding medical examination, treatment and practice of individuals.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung also agreed with the decentralization and delegation of authority to the provincial Department of Health in granting and revoking operating licenses for private hospitals and hospitals of ministries and branches in the area, except for hospitals under the management authority of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security in the current context of increased decentralization and delegation of authority.

However, the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province expressed disagreement with the content of the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) which is to pay fees to maintain practice licenses because the medical staff is lacking, and recently it can be seen that the contribution of this team is very large; while other professional activities do not raise the issue of paying fees to maintain practice licenses.

In particular, this draft law stipulates cases of refusal to examine and treat patients when patients and their relatives do not comply with the regulations and operating rules of the facilities; do not comply with the diagnosis and instructions of the practitioner after being consulted by the practitioner.

The above provision in the draft made delegate Thai Thi An Chung worried and suggested that it be revised because it relates to medical ethics. The Constitution also affirms citizens' right to medical examination and treatment; at the same time, the internal rules and regulations of medical examination and treatment facilities are essentially internal regulations. The delegate expressed her agreement to refuse to examine and treat patients in cases where the patient or the patient's family threatens the life or insults the honor and dignity of the medical staff.

The Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province also proposed to add regulations on the use of techniques in medical examination and treatment, in which cases testing techniques are indicated, in which cases previous test results can be reused to reduce time, procedures, and costs for patients and reduce expenditures for the Health Insurance Fund because in reality there is a situation of abuse of techniques in medical examination and treatment when patients from one medical facility move to another and are still assigned to re-perform previously performed testing techniques.

Delegate Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Law Committee spoke. Photo: Phan Hau

Delegate Hoang Minh Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Law Committee commented: with the goal of taking patients as the center, the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) has not yet ensured that goal.

The reason, according to the delegate's analysis, is that there are very important issues that are not clearly stated in the draft law, especially the relationship between patients and medical examiners and treatment providers; specifically, this draft law has not yet established the rights of people receiving medical examination and treatment.

Through consulting the experience of some countries, delegate Hoang Minh Hieu said that to ensure the rights of people to be examined and treated, there are many factors, of which the three most important are: protecting patient information; handling conflicts of interest between the person examining and treating and the person being examined and treated; responsibility in care and providing treatment regimens.

Delegate Pham Phu Binh - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee gave his opinion on the regulations on language use in medical examination and treatment practice. Photo: Phan Hau

However, according to the delegate of Nghe An Delegation, this draft law only mentions some factors in the above relationship related to information assurance and information provision during medical examination and treatment; but only mentions rights, not measures.

Based on that analysis, he earnestly suggested that the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) needs to be invested in more to have better protection measures for people receiving medical examination and treatment.

In addition, the National Assembly delegate from Nghe An also mentioned and commented on a number of other contents of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended).