HCMC – The HCMC Department of Health has written to the municipal government proposing inviting tenders for the supply of an additional 308 drugs to ease shortages at hospitals and medical centers.
According to the department, these drugs will include essential medicines, pharmaceutical products subject to price negotiation, medicines covered by health insurance and those not listed as drugs for national tenders.
The department also proposed the Ministry of Health allow the city to increase the number of drugs covered by health insurance at healthcare facilities by 41.
These medicines will be used for outpatients suffering from noncommunicable diseases, such as painkillers, antipyretic, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and drugs for treating hypertension, heart failure, insulin, hypoglycemia, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
If approved, tenders for these medicines will be held by the Hung Vuong Hospital in early 2023.
In related news, the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health said on September 22 that as many as 1,500 Dextran 70 infusion bags for treating shock in dengue fever had been imported into the country.
More bags will be imported to Vietnam to meet the treatment needs in the coming months, according to the administration.
In late May, several healthcare facilities nationwide expressed concerns over a Dextran shortage.
