Using Vietnamese medicine reduces treatment costs for patients

The Ministry of Health has just launched the project “Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese medicine” nationwide. This is considered a positive move aimed at providing effective treatment, reducing costs for patients and promoting the development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry towards gradually replacing imported medicine.

Implementing the project of Vietnamese people giving priority to using Vietnamese medicine

The project aims to raise awareness among people and health workers in the use of drugs produced in Vietnam, thereby contributing to increasing the rate of use of domestically produced drugs of good quality in medical facilities and in the community, while promoting the development of the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry in both quantity and quality, basically meeting the domestic demand for disease prevention and treatment drugs. The project also aims to contribute to reducing the burden of treatment costs for patients, families and society, saving resources for national development.

To implement the project, the Ministry of Health recommends that the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities direct the Department of Health, relevant departments and agencies to promptly establish a Steering Committee to implement the project, and at the same time actively mobilize the entire population to participate effectively, creating a widespread patriotic emulation movement in response to the campaign "Vietnamese people prioritize using Vietnamese goods". Accordingly, the Department of Health and media agencies should also participate in contributing to changing the awareness and behavior of using Vietnamese medicines among people, patients, especially medical practitioners, medical staff at medical examination and treatment facilities, preventive medical facilities in and outside the public sector.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that currently, there are 178 pharmaceutical manufacturing enterprises in the country, meeting about 50% of the people's demand for medicine. Domestic pharmaceutical factories all meet international standards (GMP), have good quality, and are much cheaper than similar foreign drugs. They have produced enough 10 types of vaccines to supply the expanded immunization program, contributing significantly to prevention and reducing the rate of epidemics... However, many people do not trust domestically produced drugs, while the average capacity of pharmaceutical factories is only 47%.

Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese medicine. Photo: Illustration.

Domestic medicine has the same quality as foreign medicine?

According to the Ministry of Health's calculations, the proportion of money spent on drugs produced in Vietnam and imported drugs by hospitals at all levels in 2010 was 15,000 billion VND, an increase of 22.4% compared to 2009. Of which, the proportion of money spent on drugs produced in Vietnam accounted for 38.7%, an increase compared to 2009 (38.2%).

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health), the rate of using domestically produced drugs (calculated by the proportion of drug cost) at the central level is only about 10%, at the provincial level over 40% and the highest at the district level over 50%. This reflects the fact that the higher the level of medical examination and treatment, the less domestically produced drugs are used because they are mainly used to treat serious illnesses, for which domestic drugs cannot meet the demand.

So how to increase the rate of domestic drug use? At the same time, the reality is how to change the mentality of many people "preferring" foreign drugs. Besides, the question is why Vietnamese pharmaceutical enterprises have been innovating modern technology, diversifying products, good quality equivalent to foreign drugs, reasonable prices, but the rate of domestic drugs used at treatment facilities is very low.

In addition, the project has not yet provided specific sanctions. Many opinions say that hospitals themselves must have internal prescription regulations and measures to handle them.

In terms of health insurance, there is still a level playing field without a mechanism for paying for health insurance drugs in the direction of prioritizing payment for domestically produced drugs. For cases where there are many drug options, most medical facilities that choose foreign drugs do not have sanctions to deal with them. As for domestic pharmaceutical companies, they suffer from advertising disadvantages compared to foreign companies, so they have not created trust for patients.

To increase the rate of using domestically produced drugs, many opinions say that there is no other way than to create mechanisms and policies to promote and create trust for people and medical facilities to increase the use of drugs produced in Vietnam. In particular, it is necessary to highlight the responsibility of doctors and medical staff in prescribing domestically produced drugs. At the same time, there must be specific sanctions for medical facilities and doctors who "prefer" foreign drugs unnecessarily. Only then can we hope to build the image of Vietnamese medicine as well as reduce the burden on patients.

According to (VnMedia) - M.D