Need to regulate autonomy to untie the mechanism for public hospitals

Commenting on the draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) during the discussion at the hall on the morning of October 24, many National Assembly deputies emphasized that in the draft Law, it is necessary to provide specific provisions on the autonomy of public hospitals to help these facilities exploit and maximize their potential and advantages, serving the people's health care.

Addressing the discussion, delegate Hoang Van Cuong (Hanoi) expressed concern when in the past time, tens of thousands of health workers have quit their jobs and left public hospitals, including large ones. Many large hospitals have asked to stop implementing the autonomy mechanism and switch to a subsidy system from the budget.

According to delegate Hoang Van Cuong, the phenomenon of many medical staff resigning, while reputable large hospitals are always overloaded because they are chosen by a large number of people, but requesting to stop being autonomous is a phenomenon. failure of policy in management mechanism for public hospitals.

Most of the doctors and nurses want the hospital to be fully equipped with modern equipment, drugs and supplies of the right type so that doctors have full freedom to choose to implement the most effective treatment regimens without limitation. limited by restrictive constraints on costs, categories of drugs, and devices.

Patients are also willing and willing to pay high hospital fees to be examined and treated in the best conditions at public hospitals. But because they cannot be met, they have to bring foreign currency abroad for treatment or have to switch to private hospitals or international hospitals with more modern conditions and equipment.

The above problems all stem from the basic reason that the management mechanism is binding, not allowing hospitals to exploit their full potential and inherent advantages, delegate Hoang Van Cuong stated. reality.

Therefore, the delegate suggested that it is necessary to study and supplement this draft Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (amended) with content related to mechanisms for public hospitals to exercise autonomy in organization and operation management. , so that these facilities become places to provide high quality medical examination and treatment services on a regional and international level.

According to the delegate, it is necessary to clearly define autonomy, which is to empower hospitals to decide on their own medical examination and treatment activities, to decide on organizational structure and people suitable to medical examination and treatment activities. treatment, as well as autonomy in deciding financial matters of the hospital, including revenue from the budget.

In addition, it is also necessary to stipulate a mechanism to determine the price of medical services for autonomous medical examination and treatment establishments that are different from those of non-autonomous units, based on the principle of medical examination and treatment service prices. diseases must ensure correct calculation and full cost calculation on the basis of economic and technical norms.

In addition, the delegate suggested that it is necessary to clearly define the financial management mechanism for the autonomous hospital in terms of self-determination of revenue sources, decision on expenditure levels, salary payment levels, and self-determination of investment and purchase. purchase and set aside investment and development funds as well as support funds for poor patients to avoid the incorrect notion of autonomy as "white money" for hospitals.