NA committee discusses health-related issues

The 12th National Assembly (NA) Committee on Social Affairs held its 12th plenary session in Ho Chi Minh City on April 25, discussing multiple issues related to the health sector.

The plenary session of the 12th NA Committee on Social Affairs was held in Ho Chi Minh City on April 25. (Photo: VNA)
The plenary session of the 12th NA Committee on Social Affairs was held in Ho Chi Minh City on April 25. (Photo: VNA)

NA deputies gave their opinions on the implementation of a programme on drafting laws and ordinances in the health - population field in 2019-2020 and the following years, while reviewing the results in implementing the socio-economic development plan in 2018, as well as the implementation of socio-economic development plans and the State budget estimates in the first four months and the first half this year, which are under the State management responsibility of the Ministry of Health (MoH).

According to Deputy Minister of Health, Nguyen Truong Son, the projected Law on preventing and combating the harmful effects of alcohol and beer has been developed by the MoH. The draft bill was submitted to the NA for comments in October 2018 and also submitted to the NA Standing Committee earlier this month. It is expected to be submitted to the NA for approval in May.

Meanwhile, the revised Law on examinations and treatments is expected to be submitted to the NA in October 2019, however, it will be delayed for submission until May 2020 (to be approved by October 2020) to have more time to be studied and assessed.

In addition, the application for the drafting of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control has been appraised by the Ministry of Justice and unanimously included in the Law and Ordinance Development Programme in 2020.

Deputy Minister Son said that the system of medical legal documents is now relatively complete. However, to meet the requirements of management and catch up to the realised socio-economic achievements, the health legislation in the subsequent years needs to be built and modified to meet the scientific and technological progress requirements in medicine, contributing to building a fair, effective and developing healthcare sector.

In the near future, several laws on the health sector will be built, including the revised Law on Health Insurance, expected to be submitted to the NA by 2022, the amended Law on donations and the transplantation of human tissues and organs and donation of cadavers, to be submitted to the NA by 2023, the traditional medicine and pharmacy law to be submitted to the NA by 2024, the Law on Medical Equipment by 2025 and the Cosmetic Law by 2026.

In 2018, the health sector surpassed two targets assigned by the NA, including the number of patient beds per 10,000 people reaching 26.5 (the set target is 26 by 2020) and health insurance coverage reaching 87.7% of the population (set target at 85.2%), while reaching and exceeding nine out of 11 basic targets set by the sector.

In 2019, the health sector strives to achieve and surpass two targets assigned by the NA and the Prime Minister, including 27 hospital beds per 10,000 people and health insurance coverage reaching 88.1%.

Furthermore, the MoH is also focusing on strengthening grassroots healthcare, improving people's health and the quality of health services, increasing the satisfaction of patients, effectively implementing the regulations on electronic medical records, enhancing infrastructure investment and improving the regulations on health financing and health insurance.