To eliminate the situation of medical equipment "lying unused"

Faced with the situation where countless machines and equipment in many medical facilities are being exploited and used in a very wasteful way… a series of solutions have been proposed by the Ministry of Health to resolve the situation. However, an effective and strong enough solution seems too far away.

Waste

As reported by the press, at the end of 2014, nearly a hundred pieces of medical equipment (TTBYT) that were damaged and no longer usable were discovered at Bai Chay Hospital, Quang Ninh. At the time of inspection, this medical facility could not provide documents or papers proving the origin of these types of equipment.

In mid-August 2014, Market Management Team No. 14 (Hanoi Market Management Department) coordinated with the General Economic Team - Department PA81 (Hanoi Police) to inspect 3 medical examination and treatment service establishments (No. 38, 73, 111 Phung Hung, Ha Dong, Hanoi) and discovered and temporarily seized 12 projectors and cameras with signs of violations...

Many reasons are explained by the management industry for the ineffective use of medical equipment. (Photo for illustration purposes only)

The situation of ineffective and non-transparent use of medical equipment and machinery does not only occur at these facilities but also at many other medical facilities across the country. To detect and rectify the above situation, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has directed the health sector to take action. The inspection process shows that violations are on top of violations and do not stop there.

The most typical case is the ambiguity in the procurement of medical equipment that has just been exposed at the Dak Lak Department of Health and some affiliated units. Even more sad is that the total amount of money spent on purchasing those medical equipment is up to more than 150 billion VND, including many devices that are "laying idle" in the warehouse. Not only that, many contracts to purchase genuine medical equipment from the US, Japan, and Germany, but through inspection, showed that they were goods originating from China or had no labels.

Specifically, in 2012, Ea H'Leo District General Hospital was equipped with a medical gas system worth 234 million VND. The winning bidder, Minh Tam Medical Equipment Technical Center, committed that this equipment was from Smyth Company (USA). However, upon actual inspection... the equipment had no label.

In 2014, this hospital was also equipped with an industrial dehumidifier HM630 EB, a compressor line priced at 20 million VND. The winning bidder, Tay Nguyen Medical Equipment Trading Co., Ltd., affirmed that this was “genuine Japanese” technology, but after inspection, it was found to be “made in China”…

Improving human resources is to overcome the situation?

There are many reasons explained by the management sector for the countless medical equipment “lying in the warehouse” of old and broken items, while machines and medical equipment are still lacking, or even non-existent, to serve the medical examination and treatment work. Among them, there are three main reasons: weak human resources; repair and maintenance services are not yet available; consulting and technical improvement work is not yet improved.

Specifically, according to the comments of Deputy Minister of Health Pham Le Tuan, our investment situation is not really balanced between construction and installation of medical equipment as well as procurement and use. Medical equipment is generally lacking, not synchronized and outdated compared to other countries in the region.

Most of the medical equipment currently in use at medical facilities have not been periodically calibrated, maintained and repaired; there is insufficient capital for investment and innovation; many localities do not have enough funds to purchase consumables and maintain and repair; the capacity of medical equipment technicians has not kept up with the innovations in techniques and technology; the quality of training and arrangement of specialized human resources in medical equipment engineering is still low compared to the requirements.

Illustration photo.

Many provincial hospitals do not have a medical equipment and materials management department and are still combined with the Pharmacy Department; medical equipment manufacturing enterprises are still few, with poor variety and low product quality...

To overcome this situation, at the workshop "Improving the efficiency of exploitation and use of medical equipment" recently organized by the Vietnam Medical Equipment Association on November 4 in Hanoi, Mr. Ha Dac Bien, representative of the Vietnam Medical Equipment Association, said that the immediate thing we need to do is to focus on human resource training activities.

Specifically, training for medical equipment staff should be enhanced in the direction of “hands-on instruction”. At the same time, maintenance and repair centers should be established at 3 levels: Central, regional and provincial, etc., and medical equipment repair and maintenance stations should be built in the regions with the support of manufacturers, through official distributors in Vietnam.

In addition, more attention should be paid to medical equipment consulting. In particular, the Ministry of Health needs to have a document providing specific guidance on the functions and tasks of the medical equipment and supplies departments of hospitals, because currently the functions and tasks of this unit at medical facilities are very different, even within the same level...

According to Online Law