Will Circular 15 of the Ministry of Health prevent the 66th patient from being examined?

Circular No. 15 of the Ministry of Health has stipulated the maximum number of visits. Specifically, each doctor is allowed to see up to 65 patients per day. If the 66th patient is examined or more, the health insurance fund will not cover the cost.

Circular No. 15 of the Ministry of Health stipulates that each doctor can examine up to 65 patients a day. Photo: Internet

So, will there be a situation where patients 66 and above will not be examined and will have to go home? Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, General Director of Vietnam Social Security, provides more information on this issue.

Reporter:Madam, the maximum number of visits stipulated in Circular 15 is 65 patients/1 doctor/1 day. Does such a regulation make it easy for lower-level medical facilities to seek to follow this norm to increase revenue?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh:Talking about this issue, I think it is difficult, saying too much can be right or wrong. If the doctor's level is very good, it will not take much time to diagnose the disease, that is normal.

But if we follow the standards that the capacity and qualifications at lower levels cannot meet and we just examine according to quantity, for example, we must have 65 cases, I think that is a case of following quantity, not focusing on quality.

We know from going abroad that they examine patients very carefully. We also do not encourage it because that is the maximum allowed level, but we still have to encourage doctors to be careful and diagnose the disease correctly.

Reporter:Another situation, at upper-level hospitals that are overloaded with patients, will there be a situation where patients 66 and above will not be examined and will have to go home, madam?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh:I think the calculations of the Ministry of Health and Social Insurance are also relatively close, the number of patients coming is not overloaded enough to have to go back and forth.

Here we set standards to limit the abuse of chasing quantity, I think no hospital has patients lining up and then having to turn back.

Reporter:To help reduce the burden on upper-level health care facilities, the Ministry of Health has proposed paying health insurance to health stations based on actual costs, not allocating medical examination and treatment funds as is currently the case. What is your opinion on this issue?

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh:I also agree with the proposal of the Ministry of Health but it must be based on the capacity of each medical station. When implementing, all techniques that have been decentralized to the grassroots medical system but the patient wants to go to the higher level will not be paid, the patient will only be paid for the basic service package.

What the commune level can do will be paid through the commune level, and will no longer be paid at the higher level. People will have to pay if they go beyond the upper level. In the future, if a patient goes beyond the upper level, it must be approved by the higher level hospital. Otherwise, this situation will be very difficult, because currently, going to the higher level will result in higher payment.

If we see any inadequacies, we will propose to the Ministry of Health to make amendments so that we can have truly synchronous solutions because if we talk about focusing on the grassroots, all solutions must focus on the grassroots.

Thank you!./.