The Ministry of Health has developed an estimate, proposed to allocate funds to buy vaccines for the expanded vaccination program and implemented many solutions to ensure adequate supply.
On the afternoon of June 3, at the regular Government press conference, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong said that the Government and the National Assembly's supreme monitoring team on Covid-19 prevention resources have agreed to submit to the National Assembly for approval. The association allows the continuation of the national expanded vaccination program; allocate central budget to buy vaccines at the central level.
The report and draft resolution on allocating funding for vaccine purchase have been submitted to the Government by the Ministry of Health. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has directed the Ministry of Health and Finance to arrange the central budget in 2023 to buy vaccines according to previous years. The ministry has aggregated enough vaccine needs of 63 provinces and cities, directed vaccine supply units to be ready for work.
Over the years, the Ministry of Health has implemented an expanded vaccination program with 10 dangerous infectious diseases for children and women nationwide. The program has provided enough vaccines by 2022 and by the middle of 2023. Hepatitis B and TB vaccines are still available until the end of August; Japanese encephalitis vaccine until September; measles, measles - rubella, and bOPV vaccines are enough to be used by the end of July; Tetanus and polio vaccines will be enough for the rest of the year. The imported 5-in-1 vaccine is enough to be used until early 2023. However, in 2022 the Ministry of Health bid, but no bidders participated.
Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Lien Huong answered at the regular Government press conference, on the afternoon of June 3. Photo: Nhat Bac
Explaining in more detail about the current shortage of vaccines, Deputy Minister Huong said that in the 2016-2020 period, the Ministry of Health will be allocated the central budget to order nine domestically produced vaccines. These types have only one domestic manufacturer, which is a unit of the Ministry of Health, so the Ministry has ordered. For imported vaccines, the Ministry of Health has implemented a procurement mechanism through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the form of contractor selection in special cases under the Bidding Law, or centralized bidding when Eligible have 3 registrations.
In the period of 2021-2022, according to the Law on Public Investment (amended), there are no longer health and population target programs, but only a number of activities that are integrated into the spending contents of the three national target programs. period 2021-2025. This expenditure does not have funds to buy vaccines; The remaining contents are transformed into regular tasks of ministries, central and local agencies.
In order to have a suitable roadmap when transforming the mechanism from procurement with the central budget and transferring it to localities for implementation, the National Assembly has assigned the Ministry of Health to use the central budget estimate to purchase vaccines to ensure the next year. 2021 and 2022, the first months of 2023. In order to remove difficulties for the locality, Ms. Huong said that it is necessary to continue buying vaccines in 2023 as in previous years.
Deputy Minister Huong affirmed that after three months of implementing the Government's Decree, the shortage of medical equipment related to import procedures has basically been solved. Specifically, the authorities have so far extended the validity of more than 12,500 medical equipment import permits until the end of 2024. Tens of thousands of medical equipment circulation numbers have also been extended.
Regarding drug shortage, Deputy Minister Lien explained that it only happens with some specialized drugs and rare drugs due to difficulty in supply; The need cannot be determined because the diseases are rare, the time and quantity cannot be foreseen. For example, antivenom, antitoxin, antivenom serum. In addition, Covid-19 and the war in Europe led to the disruption of the global supply chain with some drugs such as Albumin, Globulin (these drugs are lacking in almost all countries).
To solve this problem, according to the Resolution of the National Assembly, from the beginning of 2023 to now, the Ministry of Health has announced four batches with a total of 10,500 drugs to continue using the circulation registration certificate until the end of 2024. At the same time, the Ministry of Health nearly 3,000 drugs without registration number, valid for 3-5 years. Currently, there are 22,000 drug registration numbers in circulation with 800 active ingredients. "Currently, the supply of drugs on the market is basically guaranteed," said Ms. Lien Huong.
In the long term, the Ministry of Health has coordinated with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to propose to include in the draft Bidding Law amending many regulations to remove difficulties in procurement of drugs and equipment. In urgent cases, bidding packages for provision of non-consulting services, drugs, chemicals, means, supplies, medical equipment, construction and installation in service of epidemic prevention and control, and patient emergency need to be deployed. immediately to protect people's lives.
The bill also proposes to allow selection of contractors in special cases for procurement of drugs and vaccines during testing, with specific requirements of manufacturers; other forms than open bidding can be applied, selecting many contractors to increase competition and economic efficiency.
The Ministry of Health is also building 3-6 centers to stockpile rare drugs and drugs with limited supply. "This is a radical solution to ensure that special drugs are rarely used in emergencies," said the Deputy Health Minister.
