Nghe An: Open bidding and purchasing to avoid shortages of drugs and medical supplies

Lack of local

In recent times, information has beenhospitalThe top in Nghe An must "rely" on facilities,equipmentfrom other medical facilities to perform technical services for patients, causing many people to worry. Upon investigation, it was found out that: Due to the large number of patients, the actual amount of supplies and medicines used exceeded the amount supplied by the contractor to the hospital. Due to the lack of supplies and medicines, the hospital had to transfer patients to lower-level medical facilities and send doctors down to perform treatment techniques.

Medical facilities lack medicine and medical supplies, people have to buy them themselves. Photo: Thanh Chung

Up to now, Nghe An medical units have always met the demand for drugs, chemicals, and medical supplies to serve the needs of examination and treatment of the people. Nghe An medical sector has closely followed and promptly directed the situation of shortage of drugs, chemicals, and medical supplies.

However, since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2022, a number of public hospitals in the province have experienced a local shortage of certain medicines and medical supplies. This local shortage has forced patients to buy some medicines outside. Mr. N.D.N - a patient being treated at a hospital in Vinh city shared: During my hospitalization and before being discharged, the doctor at the hospital where I was treated prescribed and asked the patient's family to buy the medicine themselves. When my family asked, the doctor said that the hospital had run out of medicine and was waiting for the bidding results. Later, I learned that some of the prescribed medicines were covered by health insurance.

Discussing the shortage of drugs and medical supplies, the director of a provincial public hospital sighed: “Lack of drugs and medical supplies is inevitable. This is because many drugs, chemicals, and consumables do not have businesses participating in bidding. This situation has greatly affected medical examination and treatment. If there is a shortage of drugs and supplies, the hospital must look for alternatives. If they cannot replace them, they must transfer patients to higher levels.”

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper, some hospital leaders said that there was a shortage of drugs and medical supplies, but it was not as stressful as some central hospitals. Meanwhile, leaders of Nghe An Oncology Hospital, Nghe An Eye Hospital, and Vinh City General Hospital affirmed that "the unit is very complete, there is no shortage of drugs".

According to health managers: Currently, many hospitals at both central and local levels are experiencing a shortage of drugs and medical supplies, affecting medical examination and treatment. One of the main reasons is that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the production chain was broken; disease patterns changed, and the number of patients increased, causing supply and demand to no longer be balanced. In addition, the mechanism for bidding for drugs, chemicals and medical supplies has certain shortcomings; the directive documents up to this point are no longer suitable, causing the process of bidding for drugs, chemicals and medical supplies to be delayed and not achieving the target. Drug sources obtained through national bidding are often delayed, so patients have to buy them from outside...

The subjective cause is the fear of bidding for the purchase of drugs, medical supplies, and equipment after a series of serious violations in the health sector related to bidding for the purchase of drugs, medical supplies, and equipment were discovered and handled. Not only public hospital leaders but also businesses are afraid to supply drugs and medical supplies.

Focus on removing difficulties

To overcome difficulties and prevent the local shortage of drugs, chemicals, and medical supplies from recurring,Nghe An Department of HealthThere have been solutions in the bidding of medicines and medical supplies. Specifically, the Department of Health conducted centralized bidding for 129 medicine items in the list of centralized bidding at the local level. For the remaining items, the Department directed medical units to develop and organize bidding themselves to suit their needs.

The Department of Health has also organized bidding training courses for units in the industry; established support teams, especially 10 teams at the provincial level, including pharmacists with bidding experience to support hospitals, medical units, and mountainous districts; developed sample bidding procedures for units to implement; promptly directed and guided units to ensure progress and compliance with legal regulations.

Plan and roadmap for selecting drug suppliers in 2023 for medical facilities in the province. Photo: Thanh Chung

In October 2022, Nghe An Department of Health issued Official Dispatches No. 4010/SYT-QLD, 4128/SYT-QLD and 4210/SYT-QLD on the implementation of the plan to organize contractor selection in 2023 for drugs organized by the unit itself; reserve drugs, chemicals, medical supplies while waiting for the bidding results of 2023 to the Department of Health in Nghe An province. The official dispatches clearly stated the process and roadmap for bidding implementation. The Department of Health requested units to actively and proactively deploy necessary measures to comply with the bidding roadmap for purchasing chemicals and medical supplies for use in 2023.

Units shall review, evaluate, and develop an estimate of drug demand in 2023. For items with winning bidders, reserve sufficient quantities of goods for use during the time of completing procurement procedures according to the bidding results in 2023; for items without selected bidders, reserve sufficient quantities of goods for use during the re-bidding period... to ensure proactive and timely supply of adequate drugs, chemicals, and medical supplies for medical examination and treatment in 2023.

At this time, 43 public health units in Nghe An have been actively implementing the steps of drug bidding: Bidding notice; issuance of bidding documents; closing and opening of bids; reporting the results of technical document evaluation; approving the results of technical proposal documents; submitting for appraisal the results of contractor selection... It is expected that in December 2022 and early January 2023, the approval of contractor selection results and winning bid results at the units will be posted.

It is known that the organization of bidding for drugs and medical supplies for use in 2023 by medical units is currently proceeding smoothly; many suppliers are participating in the bidding... However, medical experts also forecast risks: If medical units with poor bidding capacity (especially district-level units) fail to organize the bidding, there may be a shortage of many drugs and medical supplies from January to February 2023. Organizing additional bidding will take a lot of time.

Regardless of the reason, not having medicine for treatment is a serious mistake to the people and patients. Pharmacist Tran Minh Tue - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Health stated: The responsibility of the leaders of the health unit in organizing the bidding for medicine, chemicals, and medical supplies to supply the needs of the unit is very large. The head needs to mobilize the unit's resources, mobilize the participation of departments, divisions, and divisions to participate in implementing the bidding and purchasing issue in accordance with regulations, on schedule, in sufficient quantity and ensuring quality... During the process of implementing the bidding and purchasing, the industry's professional support team will connect and provide maximum support to help the units handle difficulties and problems in a timely manner./.