Vietnam - Vietnam’s Vingroup adopts nonprofit model for healthcare, education branches

The Vinmec International Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has announced its plans to adopt nonprofit mechanisms for its healthcare and education systems, Vinmec and Vinschool.

Vingroup’s main goal for the transformation is to improve its contribution towards the national development of Vietnam’s healthcare and education systems.

All profits earned after the switch will be put towards upgrading human resource facilities and creating scholarships and sponsorships for research in Vietnam.

The company also said that Vingroup will not withdraw more than VND4 trillion (US$179.28 million) of its current invested capital in Vinmec and Vinschool facilities, including their infrastructure, equipment, technology.

“We hope that healthcare and education will receive support from Vietnamese and international experts,” Le Khac Hiep, deputy chairman of Vingroup, said.

“With this model, the community will gain access to world-standard healthcare and education services.”

Vinmec and Vinschool are two of Vingroup’s six core businesses.

After four years in operation, the Vinmec medical system has five hospitals in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Phu Quoc Island, and Ha Long. A sixth hospital is currently under construction in the central city of Da Nang.

Vinschool was founded in 2013 and has earned a reputation for its modern pedagogical approach to educating over 13,000 students.

Vingroup also has plans to use its nonprofit mechanisms to invest VND5 trillion ($224 million) in the construction of Vinmec University of Medicine and the international VinUniversity.

Tuoi Tre News

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Vietnam - Gap remains in hospital quality

A doctor takes care of a baby in HCM City-based Children Hospital No 1. There is still a gap between policy objectives and operations in hospitals, a pilot programme on national hospital quality assessment says. — VNA/VNS Photo Chí Tưởng

A pilot programme on national hospital quality assessment has resulted in positive results, but a gap between policy objectives and operations still exists, hospital officials have said.

"The Ministry of Health’s 83 criteria on quality have been applied at all hospitals, but more effort is needed," Lương Ngọc Khuê, director of medical services administration, said at the third National Hospital Quality Forum that wrapped up yesterday in HCM City.

The quality assessment results will be publicised to motivate hospitals to improve quality.

Despite improvements, a number of hospitals, however, still do not recognise the role of quality improvement and have not changed their minds on the role of patients and health workers, according to Khuê.

Tăng Chí Thượng, deputy director of HCM City’s Department of Health, said that treatment incidents still occurred, causing dissatisfaction among patients.

He said patients and families could call the Health Department’s hotlines to report complaints about behaviour or treatment by hospital staff.

Hospitals are still not paying sufficient attention to the management of compliance with treatment protocols and prescriptions, according to Thượng.

The application of IT in administrative procedures has not been done consistently, and the hospital environment is not always safe and secure for patients and health workers.

He attributed the quality of health services to overcrowding and facilities that have not kept pace with the development of professional techniques in hospitals.

To improve medical exam and treatment capacity, the department has piloted several models, including emergency networks, an inter-hospital code blue process, and hemodialysis at commune health stations and satellite departments of the city’s hospitals and district-level hospitals.

The Ministry of Health’s quality assessment criteria is an important legal basis for hospital quality improvement to reduce complaints and patient dissatisfaction.

The department’s health service quality management council has set five objectives: safer, better, faster, cheaper and more satisfied.

Results of Rapid Assessment goals

Jose Cardona, EU Health Facility director, said there was a gap between the national Quality Management and Quality Improvement (QM/QI) policies and the outcomes reflected in daily operations. 

Predominant use of the national Quality Management Criteria is focused on scoring and not on the elimination of essential deficits, according to results of a Rapid Check conducted by experts at 13 health facilities.

Of the 13 facilities that have implemented the QM/QI policies, three hospitals said that it was difficult to measure many of the quality management criteria.

Because of training deficits, most of the strategies, priorities or activities are more or less theoretical documents.

In addition, hospitals have been constrained by the difficult mix of in-patients, out-patients and many family members.

Patient identification, quality of care and control of patient falls are also part of QM/QI policies at most hospitals.

Many care activities must be done by relatives such as patient transport, feeding, washing and moving in and out of bed.

Patient falls are focused only on floors and not on other situations such as transport, falls from beds, and patient monitoring in difficult situations.

Besides these issuses, medication was found not to be stored or controlled well.

Hand hygiene, which is emphasised in QM policies, has not been implemented well, according to the assessment.

Waste management concepts and fire safety are also not being managed properly under QM/QI.

Four of the hospitals said that that specific training in QM/QI as well as in management was not available. Three hospitals said they did not know how to integrate QM/QI into management policies.

The Rapid Check, which was conducted by one expert over a three to four hour period on average per facility, showed deficits and risks in general and the main needs for improvement.

A limited number of modified criteria were used for the Rapid Assessment, with main focus on implementation of quality/safety, patient care, hygiene, medication, infrastructure, fire safety and staff safety.

Cardona said that specific training regarding QM/QI and its systems and tools as well as modern hospital management training should be conducted, and that the national quality criteria must be updated and clarified.

At the two-day forum, the national Medical Services Administration, in collaboration with the European Union Health Facility, distributed a manual on good practices in quality management to all 500 forum participants.

vietnamnews

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Vietnam - $58mn hospital in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta faces financial hardship

The An Giang General Hospital is seen in An Giang Province, located in southern Vietnam.

The developer of a new hospital in the southern province of An Giang is taking its medicine after spending nearly US$60 million on making it the biggest and most modern of its kind in the Mekong Delta.

The VND1,306 billion ($58.3 million), ten-story An Giang General Hospital was inaugurated in April, with 600 beds and modern equipment on a 13,000 square meter land plot in the provincial capital of Long Xuyen.

The modern hospital was upgraded and given a full facelift from an older, smaller facility.

However, as a multimillion-dollar clinic requires expensive operational costs, the board of directors are struggling with the finances to keep it running.

The hospital has a major air-conditioning system that brings cool air to every single room and sickbed, and a number of escalators and elevators.

While its facilities are convenient for everyone, the convenience stops when it comes to footing the bill.

“With all of the modern equipment in service, we pay VND100 million [$4,464] in power costs per day, so the monthly electricity bill alone is VND3 billion [$133,929],” the deputy director of the hospital, Nguyen Triet Hien, said.

An official directs a patient to use the modern elevator at An Giang Hospital.

The director, Nguyen Thi Hanh, added that they had to exercise thrift by “turning off some lights, having only one elevator in service during office hours, and powering off the air-conditioning system in several areas.”

“Even so, the power bill is still six times higher than before,” she said.

Other costs are also much higher than the old facility.

The hospital now needs some VND6 billion ($267,857) a year to pay cleaning staff, and nearly VND2 billion ($89,286) for security guards, not to mention wages for the medical staff.

Director Hanh admitted that the hospital’s monthly expense is usually more than VND10 billion ($446,429), compared to total revenue of between VND9 billion ($401,786) and VND10 billion.

But it is not easy to increase revenue at a hospital.

The number of patients failed to increase along with the facility’s amenity and modernity.

The clinic still receives some 800 to 900 inpatients on a daily basis, but cannot charge them higher fees.

“Despite the upgraded scale, An Giang Hospital is still a province-level infirmary, and is therefore required to apply the same pricing scheme as before,” Tu Quoc Tuan, director of the provincial health department, explained.

Tuoi Tre News

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Myanmar - Lawmakers debate expanding rural healthcare

A patient sleeps on her bed in a ward at Yangon General Hospital in Yangon. Photo: AFP

Debating the National Health Policy in the Pyithu Hluttaw yesterday, most members of parliament advocated for adding more public health staff around the country, particularly in rural areas.

Dr Aye Zin Latt, a National League for Democracy MP for Sagaing Region, submitted the proposal in the first regular session.

Daw San San Ei, an NLD MP for Kachin State’s Mohnyin township, said the death toll for infants and mothers is increasing in rural areas because of insufficient health staffing and inadequate medicine.

She suggested that the government open more rural-based pharmacies and assign more midwives and general health staff.

U Maung Maung, another NLD MP, from Htigyaing township in Sagaing Region, said improved health education is needed.

“I run a hardware shop. One day, a girl came in and bought a yellow powder used for polishing furniture,” he said. “When I asked her why she needed to buy it, she said she was going to use it to make pork sticker. She wanted to use the polish to colour food.”

Daw Wint War Tun, an NLD MP for Kayah’s Shardaw township, said remote areas of her state are especially in need of healthcare services.

The services cover the urban areas while neglecting the rural areas, said Daw Khin Saw Wai, an Arakan National Party MP for Rathedaung township in Rakhine State.

“Because of the lay of the land, three or four villages cannot have a midwife,” she said. “It means we are neglecting mothers from rural areas who cannot go to urban areas for medical treatment.”

One-third of the country’s children under five years old are malnourished, said Dr Aung Khin, an NLD MP from Mandalay Region’s Pyin Oo Lwin township. About 29 percent do not meet the standard height for children their age. The malnourishment leads to physical and developmental issues when they grow up, he said.

Staffing of the country’s health sector is just over 40pc of what it should be, he said.

U Thet Naung from Lahe township in Sagaing Region said health workers’ salaries need to be increased.

In his township, only 26 health workers are assigned to a department that should have a staff of 94.

“They say they are thrown away into the distant areas,” he said, explaining how health workers respond when they are assigned to the township.

Responding to the MPs, Union Minister for Health and Sport U Myint Htwe said that in two months 2000 doctors and medical staff will be assigned to meet the needs of the hospitals.

However, the deputy director of the medical care department has previously admitted to The Myanmar Times that the ministry is direly short on doctors. The new recruits barely begin to staunch the vacancies, with 2000 to 3000 new doctors needed annually just to fill the gaps.

According to the World Health Organization, Myanmar has just six doctors for every 10,000 people, with a rural and urban disparity exacerbating the shortage outside of city centres. According to a parliamentary session last month, only 37,710 medical officers and staff serve the entire country’s 51 million people.

Parliament’s debate on the National Health Policy is scheduled to continue today.

Htoo Thant

mmtimes

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Vietnam - Public hospital fees hiked by 18% in August

Public hospital services and products in 16 provinces and cities have become 18 per cent more expensive since the middle of August, as patients pay for health staff’s basic salaries. — Photo giadinhvietnam.com

HÀ NỘI — Public hospital services and products in 16 provinces and cities have become 18 per cent more expensive since the middle of August, as patients pay for health staff’s basic salaries.

Labour-intensive services such as check-ups, bed charges and surgeries, particularly those requiring up to eight medical workers for three or four hours, cost more now.

Deputy Minister of Health Phạm Lê Tuấn said the new tariff regime was for health insurance card-holders only and was being implemented in 16 localities where 85 per cent of the population have bought medical insurance.

However, special medical insurance card-holders such as poor people, children under six years of age, social welfare beneficiaries and national revolutionary contributors such as Vietnamese heroic mothers and soldiers would not be affected by the increased rates as they were subsidised wholly or mostly by the government, he said.

The localities are Lào Cai, Thái Nguyên, Điện Biên and Hà Giang, besides Bắc Kạn, Sơn La, Tuyên Quang and Cao Bằng, as well as Lai Châu, Yên Bái, Lạng Sơn and Hòa Bình, as also Đà Nẵng, Sóc Trăng, Thừa Thiên-Huế and Quảng Nam.

In March this year, public hospital fees were hiked by 30 per cent, with patients now having to pay for nearly 1,900 services and products that were earlier subsidised by the government, such as power and water, maintenance of equipment and waste treatment facilities and training and research.

When the first round of hikes took effect in March, the cost of a health check-up in first-class hospitals (national hospitals or major hospitals in cities/provinces/regions), for example, doubled to touch VNĐ40,000 (US$1.8).

Bed charges per day went up from VNĐ80,000 ($3.6) to VNĐ215,000 ($9.6).

The cost of stomach flushing rose to VNĐ106,000 ($4.7) from VNĐ30,000 ($1.3).

According to finance and health ministries, this year would see three more hospital fee hikes in other localities in the country.

The fee revision is aimed at ending government subsidies in hospitals and at gradual improvement of the quality of health services.

Phạm Lương Sơn, head of the Việt Nam Social Insurance Agency’s Health Insurance Policy Implementation Department, said the new prices would not apply to uninsured patients to give them time to buy insurance, but it would apply in the near future.

Uninsured patients would suffer the most with the rising prices, he said.

Around 71.1 million people, accounting for 77 per cent of Việt Nam’s population, had been covered by medical insurance as of the end of May. The country aims for 78.8 per cent coverage by the end of this year and 90 per cent by 2020.

vietnamnews

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Cambodia - Telemedical Center Opens Amid Organ Probe

Patients wait inside the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi last year. (Reuters)

A private Indian hospital group that has been under investigation since authorities uncovered illegal organ harvesting at its New Delhi facility in June is opening a tele­medical center in Phnom Penh this weekend that will refer Cambodians abroad for transplants and other services.

Apollo Hospitals, the largest private health care group in India, says it intends to serve poor and critically ill Cambodians living in rural areas.

But it has not yet determined how those patients will reach its Phnom Penh office for online consultations with overseas doctors, how they will be transported to its facilities in India, or who will pay for their treatment.

At a news conference on Thursday, Syed Sarfraz Quadri, deputy general manager of Apollo’s international health care services in Southeast Asia, said the for-profit Apollo Telemedicine Center would encourage both wealthy and poor Cambodians to travel to India for “critical surgeries like organ transplants or heart transplants or even cancer,” but offered scant explanation for how the poor might afford overseas travel and private medical care.

“We are working out details on the NGOs who can sponsor, and Apollo can come forward in subsidizing the rates,” he said without elaborating.

Mr. Quadri said Apollo planned to train local doctors in Phnom Penh and India, as well as establish a network of doctors and nurses across Cambodia who would refer patients to its Phnom Penh office, located in the De Castle Royal apart­ment building, where staff would connect them to medical professionals in India via video link.

“That process has not yet be­gun. So far, I think we were quite busy, initially, to launch the center, then we would proceed further,” he said.

Mr. Quadri said Apollo also planned to open telemedicine centers across Cambodia, and eventually provide emergency services.

However, Apollo and its Cam­bo­dia-based partner, pharmaceutical distributor Pluton Life Sci­ences, whose website lists India as one of its largest trading partners, have yet to initiate discussions with Cambodia’s medical fraternity or Health Ministry about how they would work together, according to Pluton.

Indeed, ministry spokesman Ly Sovann said on Thursday that he was unaware of Apollo’s facility in Phnom Penh, let alone the company’s ambitious expansion plans.

Sann Sary, director of the ministry’s hospital department, said he, too, knew nothing about the company’s operations.

Ashutosh Garg, managing di­rec­tor of Pluton, said he approached Apollo after determining that Cam­bodians often travel abroad for medical treatment.

“Rich people, we found that they go to Singapore for treatment. Mid­dle class, they go to Thailand. And after that, low-middle or middle class go to Vietnam,” he said.

Mr. Garg said Apollo’s facility in Phnom Penh would appeal to all patients by offering medical care at bargain prices.

“I can’t give you the figures, but it will be nearly 30 percent of the Singapore cost,” he said. “So it is quite affordable.”

The telemedical center will not be staffed with doctors or nurses, Mr. Garg said. Instead, it will em­ploy paramedics and administrative employees who can arrange overseas hospital visits, as well as visas and travel itineraries for patients traveling to India.

Apollo’s troubles in India began in June, when police launched an investigation into the company’s Indraprastha hospital in New Delhi after uncovering an illegal organ-harvesting ring at the facility.

Organizers were accused of buying kidneys for an average of $4,480 and selling them on the black market at a profit, Reuters reported.

At least nine people, including two assistants of a nephrologist employed by the hospital, were re­portedly arrested over the scheme, in which traffickers allegedly gave victims fake identification documents to trick hospital staff into thinking they were the organ re­cipients’ relatives, according to Reuters.

The hospital subsequently is­sued a statement claiming it was the “victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital.”

“While all due precautions were conducted, the use of fake and forged documents was used for this racket with a criminal intent,” the statement said.

The Indraprastha hospital did not respond to a request for comment.

In Phnom Penh, N. Sitlhou, first secretary at the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh, said on Friday that he was unaware of the police probe.

“That is news to me…. You should talk to Mr. Safraz,” he said of Mr. Quadri.

He said the embassy facilitated the partnership between Apollo and Pluton and Ambassador Na­veen Srivastava was to speak at a gala inaugurating the new facility on Friday night.

During Thursday’s news conference, Mr. Sithou said the embassy issued up to 10 visas each month to Cambodians traveling to India for medical treatment—the majority of whom, Apollo says, are seeking liver or kidney transplants.

Mr. Sitlhou clarified on Friday that visas were only issued to or­gan recipients who traveled to In­dia with Cambodian donors.

“We don’t give any visa from the embassy unless we have a donor traveling with [the receiver]. They have to be a Cambodian.”

Sonia Kohlbacher

cambodiadaily

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Vietnam - Public hospital fees hiked by 18% in August

Public hospital services and products in 16 provinces and cities have become 18 per cent more expensive since the middle of August, as patients pay for health staff’s basic salaries. — Photo giadinhvietnam.com

HÀ NỘI — Public hospital services and products in 16 provinces and cities have become 18 per cent more expensive since the middle of August, as patients pay for health staff’s basic salaries.

Labour-intensive services such as check-ups, bed charges and surgeries, particularly those requiring up to eight medical workers for three or four hours, cost more now.

Deputy Minister of Health Phạm Lê Tuấn said the new tariff regime was for health insurance card-holders only and was being implemented in 16 localities where 85 per cent of the population have bought medical insurance.

However, special medical insurance card-holders such as poor people, children under six years of age, social welfare beneficiaries and national revolutionary contributors such as Vietnamese heroic mothers and soldiers would not be affected by the increased rates as they were subsidised wholly or mostly by the government, he said.

The localities are Lào Cai, Thái Nguyên, Điện Biên and Hà Giang, besides Bắc Kạn, Sơn La, Tuyên Quang and Cao Bằng, as well as Lai Châu, Yên Bái, Lạng Sơn and Hòa Bình, as also Đà Nẵng, Sóc Trăng, Thừa Thiên-Huế and Quảng Nam.

In March this year, public hospital fees were hiked by 30 per cent, with patients now having to pay for nearly 1,900 services and products that were earlier subsidised by the government, such as power and water, maintenance of equipment and waste treatment facilities and training and research.

When the first round of hikes took effect in March, the cost of a health check-up in first-class hospitals (national hospitals or major hospitals in cities/provinces/regions), for example, doubled to touch VNĐ40,000 (US$1.8).

Bed charges per day went up from VNĐ80,000 ($3.6) to VNĐ215,000 ($9.6).

The cost of stomach flushing rose to VNĐ106,000 ($4.7) from VNĐ30,000 ($1.3).

According to finance and health ministries, this year would see three more hospital fee hikes in other localities in the country.

The fee revision is aimed at ending government subsidies in hospitals and at gradual improvement of the quality of health services.

Phạm Lương Sơn, head of the Việt Nam Social Insurance Agency’s Health Insurance Policy Implementation Department, said the new prices would not apply to uninsured patients to give them time to buy insurance, but it would apply in the near future.

Uninsured patients would suffer the most with the rising prices, he said.

Around 71.1 million people, accounting for 77 per cent of Việt Nam’s population, had been covered by medical insurance as of the end of May. The country aims for 78.8 per cent coverage by the end of this year and 90 per cent by 2020.

vietnamnews

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Laos - Laos Anesthesia Training Project Promotes International Partnership

The motto of the health workers who provide care to patients at Lao Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC) is: “Treat every patient as if your own child.” The dedication of the hospital staff, as well as that of the numerous volunteers who serve at LFHC, has enabled the recently opened institution to provide free medical care to more than 15,000 children during its first year of operation.

LFHC is a full-service hospital providing both in-patient and out-patient care. It was founded and is supported by the nonprofit organization,Friends Without a Border. Like HVO, Friends Without a Border recognizes that educating local health care providers is a critical component of capacity building and improving health outcomes at the population level. HVO volunteers have long provided training to health workers in a variety of specialty areas at LFHC’s sister institution, the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. In March 2016, HVO began its partnership with LFHC with the launch of our anesthesia training project at the site (this partnership has since expanded to include a general pediatrics training project as well).

Volunteers to HVO’s anesthesia training project at LFHC will provide clinical and didactic instruction to the individuals enrolled in the hospital’s nurse anesthesia training program. The long-term goal of this program is to develop an anesthesia department at LFHC that employs at least three nurse anesthetists and one anesthesiologist. At present, there is a nurse nine months into LFHC’s two-year nurse anesthesia training program. The hospital hopes to enroll two more nurses in the program in the coming months. There is a pressing need for volunteers at this project site to support the growth of the training program. LFHC is seeking HVO volunteers who can commit to assignments of at least two weeks. Volunteers with regional experience would be particularly helpful. (Click here to learn more about the volunteer placement process.) 

A unique feature of the LFHC nurse anesthesia training program is that students are able to spend five to seven months of their training at sister institution AHC in Cambodia. During this time, trainees receive clinical and didactic instruction both from AHC nurse anesthetists and HVO volunteers at that project site. Kuelee, the nurse currently completing the LFHC nurse anesthesia training program, has just returned from her time in Cambodia. Anesthesia Laos project director Rick Henker, PhD, RN, CRNA, shared the following description of Kuelee’s experience with HVO staff:

“Kuelee, the Lao nurse that is in the program, has spent seven months at Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Kuelee has learned not only from the nurse anesthetists at AHC but also volunteers spending time at AHC from Oregon Health Sciences University and Seattle Children’s Hospital. The reason for AHC: the practice is similar to LFHC in terms of types of cases and available resources. I have also spent time teaching Kuelee while at AHC.” 

At present, there is no licensure for nurses or nurse anesthetists in Laos, but students will keep track of their clinical cases for possible recognition/accreditation of the program in the future. Volunteers at HVO’s anesthesia training project in Laos will have a unique opportunity to support this innovative training program during the early phases of its inception. Learn more about HVO’s anesthesia training project in Laos, as well as our other anesthesia training programs on our anesthesia programs page.

Nora Daly

hvousa

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Indonesia - High-quality medicine for better public health

Over the past year, we have seen two cases in which patients have fallen victim to low-quality anesthetics they received while undergoing hospital treatment.

In addition, the very recent cases regarding fake vaccines for children are proof that our public health system is under threat.

These cases have shown that the use and availability of quality medicines are paramount in sustaining public health and that any treatment with low-quality or counterfeit drugs can drastically affect the outcome of that treatment.

It seems that confidence in Indonesia’s public healthcare sector has been shaken by concerns over such low-quality or fake medicines. Moreover, the reputation of Indonesia’s healthcare sector may be irreversibly tarnished should such cases recur.

Unfortunately we still neglect healthcare even though it is one of our basic needs. Many are ready to spend a lot on material goods and services, but thrifty when it comes to health and wellbeing. They opt to buy medicine at lower cost, despite the risks they may face.

It is certainly true that when it comes to high-quality medicines — most of which are produced by international pharmaceutical companies — people have to pay premium prices. But people tend to take medicine for granted and many still question why some medicines are more expensive than others.

Furthermore, people tend to overlook the fact that some medicines are the result of 10 to 15 years of costly clinical research. Drug manufacturers must also comply with good manufacturing practice (GMP) prior to the discovery of the drug itself.

In addition, once a drug is produced, the registration process for marketing approval also takes time. And all of this contributes to increased costs.

For many Indonesian patients, however, high-quality and brand-name medicines are not a priority. But the sad fact is that such attitudes have the potential to harm the public health. The public should be prescribed, and have access to, genuine and innovative drugs when they need them.

Considering this, promoting correct healthcare habits and providing access to innovative medicine — as part of the government’s approach to improve overall public health — should be encouraged through the following approaches.

First, the government should remove all regulations that hamper the development of high-quality and innovative medicines in Indonesia.

Recently, the House of Representatives deliberated the revision of the draft patent law, which the government believes will complement its efforts in developing the local pharmaceutical industry, as well as the recent revision of the Negative Investment List (DNI).

From an R&D-based industry perspective, the revision of the draft patent law would weaken, rather than strengthen, Indonesia’s intellectual property rights system.

It would also dampen foreign investors’ interest in Indonesia’s pharmaceutical industry and prohibit patient access to new and innovative medicines.

In addition, the draft patent law would prohibit the use of existing patents for new medicines, while new forms of a known substance would be required to demonstrate enhanced therapeutic efficacy.

These restrictive patent requirements would be impossible to comply with and would potentially contravene World Trade Organization regulations.

Furthermore, such moves could inhibit pharmaceutical companies’ commitments to clinical trials for new medicines and, in turn, deny the public access to innovative treatments.

With regard to the compulsory licensing clause within the draft patent law, which is supposedly aimed at increasing access to better treatments, it is not an effective way to either improve access or accomplish other public health objectives.

It also does not necessarily lower the price of high-quality medicine, nor does it allow the public access to them in the short-term or provide a sustainable solution to longer-term challenges.

Therefore, the government should reconsider the compulsory licensing provisions within the draft patent law. Moreover, the government also needs to ensure that any future compulsory licensing decisions that are made on the grounds of public health are made through fair and transparent procedures that involve the participation of all stakeholders.

Second, the government should make it easier for high-quality medicines to enter the market.

One of the factors that result in poor access to innovative medicines is that to register a new drug in Indonesia takes approximately 300 working days, or 60 weeks, to process, while in Malaysia, it takes just 180 working days.

With such a long process, patients abroad have access to better-quality and newer medications compared with patients in Indonesia. So it is no wonder that many Indonesians prefer to receive medical services in other countries.

We should also consider that every patient has different needs and that it is his or her own right to determine the best medicine for the treatment.

If one particular necessity is neglected, it will hamper all of the progress that has been made. As such, it is the duty of the government to address the people’s needs.

To conclude, the public needs to be less frugal about its health spending. Healthcare should come first and proper healthcare habits are key to effective treatment.

The government wants international pharmaceutical companies to produce affordable and innovative drugs, but the government must realize that doing so requires a lot of hard work and a substantial amount of investment.

In order to improve Indonesia’s healthcare sector — as well as to increase access to innovative drugs—transparency and aligned commitment are needed between the government and industry players.

Parulian Simanjuntak

The writer is executive director of the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group (IPMG), a non-profit organization that comprises 24 international, research-based pharmaceutical companies operating in Indonesia. The views expressed are his own.

thejakartapost

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Vietnam - Improved healthcare services to better satisfy patients, Health Minister

Hospitals and Health Ministry publicise hotlines to receive patients’ concerns over hospital-related issues.

HÀ NỘI — Health Minister Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến yesterday said that any healthcare provider would be rejected from their work if they broke the code of ethnics and damaged the image of Vietnamese doctors.

The healthcare sector is determined to improve service delivery quality and attitude to patients in order to better satisfy patients and service users. From the middle of last year, the Health Ministry launched a programme on improving healthcare providers’ manners and attitude to better serve patients.

Minister Tiến spoke via an online meeting yesterday with health officials across the country, commenting that patients’ satisfaction of healthcare services was a top goal for the healthcare sector.

According to reports released at the meeting yesterday, five healthcare providers were fired, seven people were dismissed from their duties, 50 people were assigned to other positions and more than 15,800 people were disciplined as they were found to have committed wrongdoings against patients.

The Health Ministry’s hotline – 19009095 – received over 4,000 calls in the last six months, about 40 per cent of which were patient complaints on hospital infrastructure and poor facilities, 28 per cent related to professional procedures and 14 per cent related to healthcare providers’ attitude and performance.

Hospitals and healthcare centres must pay attention to both medical services and non-medical services like parking, security, canteens and transportation in hospitals, Tiến said.

She asked hospital managers to review the operation of such services, particularly those provided by companies which are not under the management of hospitals.

“Hospitals must ensure transparent biddings to select providers of such hospital logistic services,” she said.

vietnamnews

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