Re-establish centralised drug procurement centre: HCM City health department

The HCM City Department of Health has proposed the re-establishment of a centralised drug and medical procurement centre in order to prevent frequent errors in the bidding process. — Photo:danviet.vn

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Health has proposed the re-establishment of a centralised drug and medical procurement centre to remove current errors in the bidding process.

The centre would organise the procurement, equipment, supply and coordination of goods including drugs, medical supplies and equipment for hospitals and medical centers.

As per the proposal, the centre will ensure professionalism, operate on a large scale independently and objectively to meet procurement needs of the medical industry.

According to the Department of Health, re-establishment of the center would ensure transparency and limit errors that have been happening when units organise their own bidding for medical equipment and drugs. It would also reduce waste by actively regulating drugs and consumables.

A centralised procurement center was previously established in January, 2014. From 2014 until 2016, the centre organised six bidding packages for medicines, nine packages for medical supplies and 12packages for equipment. 

On October 4, 2017, the city decided to dissolve the centre for the lack of human resources to run it. 

Since then, all medical units in HCM City have had to carry out the procurement of medical equipment, supplies and drugs on their own.

However, according to the health department, the procurement process for drugs and medical equipment requires expertise that must units do not possess and they do not understand the bidding system, either. This has led to confusion and errors in declaring prices and other activities.

Therefore, the department argues, it is necessary to return to centralised bidding. 

The results of a rapid survey collecting opinions of public hospitals and medical units directors showed that 91.5 per cent agreed with the department’s new proposal. VNS