Many shortcomings need to be resolved in medical examination and treatment in hospitals

On August 22, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation led by Comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation had a supervision of medical examination and treatment in the period of 2018-2022 at Thai An Oncology and General Hospital.

HUMAN RESOURCE SHORTAGE

Proposing to the Supervisory Delegation, the representative of Nghe An Oncology Hospital reflected the unit's difficulties in human resources, procedures for bidding for drugs and medical supplies; and the preferential treatment policy for medical staff is still somewhat limited.

The monitoring delegation worked with Nghe An Oncology Hospital. Photo: Thanh Le

According to Dr. Tran Duc Hung - Head of the Organization and Personnel Department of the Oncology Hospital, the number of cancer patients is increasing, at times the hospital has 1,400 inpatients, while there is a serious shortage of medical staff. The hospital wishes to add more staff to ensure the rights of patients and meet the criteria of the number of medical staff per hospital bed.

"The hospital has proposed to recruit more than 150 medical staff and has sent a recruitment plan to the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Health for more than a month, but has not received any response yet. The reason for the shortage of human resources is that the hospital has not yet recruited enough human resources according to the approved job position plan," said Dr. Hung.

Doctor Pham Vinh Hung - Deputy Director of Nghe An Oncology Hospital clarified the contents that the Supervisory Delegation was concerned about. Photo: Thanh Le

Regarding difficulties and problems, Dr. Do Tri Diem - Deputy Director of the Oncology Hospital reflected: Medical examination and treatment facilities are currently facing difficulties in bidding for drugs. It takes 7-8 months to build a hospital bidding list and 4 months to bid. From building the list to having the bidding results, it takes 1 year.

“The National Drug Bidding Center issued the results of selecting drug suppliers and the results of drug price negotiations slowly, making hospitals passive in drug supply. In some cases, it caused local drug shortages for drugs in the national bidding list and the price negotiation list.

For example, in 2022, due to the delay in the issuance of the National Bidding results, there was a shortage of Anastrozole for about 2 months. With the permission of the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee, the Oncology Hospital organized an additional bidding to obtain Anastrozole to serve the treatment needs of patients.

“The National Drug Bidding Center needs to issue the results of contractor selection on schedule, helping medical units to be proactive in supplying drugs to meet the treatment needs of patients. The Department of Health should organize drug bidding for medical examination and treatment units in the province to reduce the burden on medical examination and treatment facilities and focus on medical examination and treatment.

The hospital hopes that the Provincial People's Committee and the Health sector will create favorable conditions to promote the socialization of medical services in order to mobilize resources and strengthen the capacity of medical facilities to improve the quality and diversify medical services, while proactively controlling the quality of medical services.

MANY PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS

Working scene. Photo: Thanh Le

After 15 years of establishment,Thai An General Hospital has been operating stably and is growing, contributing to reducing the burden on upper-level medical examination and treatment; creating equal competition between private and public medical facilities to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment for the people.

According to the hospital's report, the unit is currently facing many difficulties. In the first years of its establishment, the number of patients coming for medical examination and treatment was high, often overloaded. However, since 2016, the mechanism and policy of connecting insurance lines of the same class and hospital line have helped the hospital maintain a stable level of examining 250-300 patients/day, inpatients 120-150 patients/day. In addition, the hospital has implemented a project to build a technical area and an examination area since 2016, but it has not been resolved.

Members of the Supervisory Delegation attended the meeting with Thai An General Hospital. Photo: Thanh Le

“Specialized hospitals belong to the Department of Health, but management procedures are decided by the Ministry of Health (such as hospital beds are assigned according to the hospital's proposal, but when wanting to make reasonable changes within the hospital, departments and rooms must submit to the Ministry of Health, the time to get approval from the time of submission to approval must be at least 2-3 months).

The total payment for medical examination and treatment under health insurance according to Article 24 of Decree 146/ND-CP/2018 is not reasonable, especially during the epidemic period of 2020-2021 and the first months of 2022 as well as the increasing demand of patients and technical services" - doctorDoctor Phan The Long - Deputy Executive Director of Thai An Hospital said.

The monitoring delegation inspected the site of the project to expand the medical examination and treatment area of ​​Thai An General Hospital. Photo: Thanh Le

Concluding the meetings, Comrade Thai Thi An Chung shared the difficulties of the medical examination and treatment facilities of the hospitals. She highly appreciated the efforts of the hospitals in the work of medical examination and treatment for the people.

To improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, he suggested that hospitals need to have solutions to increase the attraction of human resources, focus on technical training; invest in facilities and equipment applying high technology and specialized techniques; pay attention to scientific research. Hospitals need to have plans to create conditions for medical staff and doctors to be granted practice certificates.

Visiting patients being treated at Thai An General Hospital. Photo: Thanh Le

At the same time, actively coordinate with relevant agencies to resolve difficulties in payment for medical examination and treatment under health insurance; promote the application of information technology in medical examination and treatment activities; coordinate to propagate to patients the rights and obligations of patients; propagate to officials and civil servants about the responsibilities, rights and obligations of practicing.

Comrade Thai Thi An Chung delivered a concluding speech at the meeting with Thai An General Hospital. Photo: Thanh Le

Regarding the unit's proposals and recommendations on difficulties, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation will receive and make recommendations at the upcoming meeting with the Provincial People's Committee. For recommendations at the Central level, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation will synthesize recommendations with relevant ministries and branches.