Nghe An: Many medicinal products cannot be purchased

Cannot buy traditional medicine

During the organizationBiddingIn the recent drug procurement, at Nghe An Traditional Medicine Hospital, the bidding process was very methodical, thanks to the unit having a team of good staff, a lot of experience in bidding, and many years of participating in the bidding expert group of the health sector. However, the problem is that not many suppliers of medicinal materials participated.

Nghe An Traditional Medicine Hospital. Photo: Thanh Chung

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hai - Deputy Director of Nghe An Traditional Medicine Hospital said: In 2022, the procurement of medicinal herbs has been extremely difficult. In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, border gates with China were closed, market prices skyrocketed, causing suppliers of medicinal herbs to the Hospital to "drop by drop". This year, the Hospital organized a bidding process but no contractors participated.

At the end of 2022 and the first month of 2023, the Covid-19 epidemic has stabilized, the Hospital has prepared bidding documents with 5 bidding packages. Packages 1, 2, 3 are all-natural medicines, produced from medicinal herbs. Packages 4 and 5 are medicinal herbs, used to produce medicine at the hospital.

The hospital has purchased some modern medicines in packages 1, 2 and 3; however, the medicines are not complete. For example, with package 1 consisting of 131 items, only 81 items were awarded the bid, the remaining 50 items were not participated in by the contractor. Packages 4 and 5 - the medicinal herbs package - are very difficult, only 1/3 of the medicines were purchased.

The story of not being able to purchase enough medicinal herbs and traditional medicine to serve medical examination and treatment at Nghe An Traditional Medicine Hospital is the common situation of medical examination and treatment facilities in the whole province.

For district-level medical units, the first time they conducted bidding, purchasing medicinal herbs and traditional medicines was much more difficult. Some units were even unable to purchase any medicinal herbs or traditional medicines, even though they invited bids and extended the bidding period but no businesses participated.

According to medical facilities, the reasons why businesses do not participate in the pharmaceutical and traditional medicine sector include: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the supply of raw materials is disrupted, businesses do not have anything to produce and supply. Many documents have stipulated that prices cannot be higher than before while the market has many changes, prices are escalating. The demand for use by medical facilities is low, so businesses are not enthusiastic about participating.

Very few businesses participate in bidding for traditional medicine and medicinal herbs packages. Photo: Internet

Many new documents and circulars regulate medicinal materials (such as having medicinal material standards according to the Vietnamese pharmacopoeia such as color, taste, starch, trace elements; must publish output on the Ministry of Health's website; must prove origin) but the supplying enterprises have not yet met the regulations and are therefore not eligible to participate...

In fact, the difficulties in purchasing medicines were predicted by medical facilities. To cope with this difficulty, medical facilities have stockpiled goods in advance. However, the reserve is only guaranteed until the end of March 2023.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Hai - Deputy Director of Nghe An Traditional Medicine Hospital said: Due to the inability to buy enough medicinal herbs, the hospital has directed to increase the import of available modern medicines to treat patients. The hospital also directed departments and offices to closely follow legal documents to speed up the re-bidding for the procurement of missing medicinal herbs and medicinal ingredients. In March 2023, the re-bidding will continue to be carried out.

"Burn" the infusion

Information from the Department of HealthNghe AnIn the recent drug procurement bidding, intravenous fluids were the item with the highest bid rejection rate, second only to medicinal herbs and traditional medicine ingredients... In medical facilities, if traditional medicine is not used too much or is not too urgent (affecting the patient's life), intravenous fluids are an irreplaceable item that is required.

Infusion solutions are sterile drug solutions used for intravenous drip in large volumes. Infusion solutions come in many types with active ingredients at different concentrations, which can be hypertonic or isotonic with the corresponding substances in the blood.

Some forms of infusion are quite complete in micronutrients and are used to replace plasma or supplement vitamins and amino acids in some cases where it is necessary to provide nutrients for patients who cannot eat or absorb nutrients through the digestive tract. When the glucose or electrolyte content in the blood is lower than the allowed level, the doctor will rely on the test results to decide whether to infuse or not.

In some cases, patients must be given intravenous fluids immediately, such as when they are dehydrated, have lost blood, are severely malnourished, or are poisoned, before or after surgery... Infusion when necessary also helps to detoxify the body from drug poisoning, food poisoning, or acute infections, and helps increase urine excretion.

Some types of intravenous solutions are also used as solvents to dissolve some injectable drugs, especially antibiotics. Depending on the patient's physical condition, the doctor will prescribe the type of intravenous solution.

In the procurement of medicines through bidding at medical units, intravenous fluids are the item with a high bid rejection rate. Photo: Internet

Doctor Dang Tan Minh - Director of Quy Chau District Medical Center shared: Many medical facilities in the province have failed to bid for infusion products. The reason for the failure is that the enterprises bid higher than the prescribed bid price. Facing the risk of shortage of infusion products, the units reported to the Department of Health to request the province's policy to re-bid, to carry out designated bidding...

According to a medical expert: In reality, there are not many businesses selling intravenous fluids because this is a product that brings in very little profit. The value of a bottle of intravenous fluids is not high, but it has a large volume and weight. Therefore, the cost for businesses to transport and store this product is very high. There have been suppliers who have accepted to "sell at a loss" intravenous fluids to medical facilities to "make a profit" from other products. In the recent bidding, the bidding price of intravenous fluids offered by suppliers was high because the businesses had calculated the transportation and storage costs for this product.

Faced with the risk of shortage of infusion equipment, Nghe An Department of Health has directed medical units that cannot purchase this item in particular and medicines in general to immediately re-organize bidding, so as not to affect the medical examination and treatment for people. Regarding relevant state management agencies, they will actively support and create all favorable conditions to help units perform well the bidding work for purchasing medicines, biological products, chemicals and medical consumables./.