Issue an order to connect to the network of drug retail establishments nationwide

On August 24, 2018 in Hung Yen, Viettel Military Industry and Telecommunication Group cooperated with the Ministry of Health to organize an online conference on IT application to connect drug supply establishments nationwide, connect more 700 bridge points with the participation of more than 16,500 delegates representing agencies, departments, and leaders of 63 provinces and cities nationwide

The conference was attended by Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam; Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien; Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Thanh Hung, Colonel Hoang Son, Deputy General Director of Viettel and leaders of Hung Yen Provincial People’s Committee.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that this is a meeting to thoroughly grasp the policy of applying IT to connect to the network to manage drug selling establishments nationwide. That said, building electronic health records for people and connecting to the IT system to manage all drugstores in the country are two things that need to be done immediately by the health sector, related to the number of patients. With a large number of Vietnamese people, the Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that connecting pharmacies across the country will overcome the shortcomings and difficulties in the management and use of drugs today. “Connecting the system of drug retailers throughout the country, the health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry will have more data to manage, pharmacies will have more tools to support business activities and profits. especially the people. People will know the quality, use of the drug, the origin of the drug, the expiry date of the drug… and people can also compare the prices of the drugstores,” the Deputy Prime Minister shared.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the Ministry of Health to soon put the system into operation nationwide to serve the people. The Deputy Prime Minister stated that “Drug management in Vietnam is still lax, the rate of antibiotic resistance is very high compared to the world. Although drug prices are only higher than one country in the ASEAN region, they must strive to bring them to the lowest level in the region. This situation must be overcome soon by connecting pharmacies to manage the quality, origin, expiry date and compare drug prices, on the one hand, optimizing business, on the other hand, bringing more benefits to customers. citizen. “It must be done very quickly, to benefit the people, it must be done early that day,” emphasized the Deputy Prime Minister and directed the Ministry of Health to quickly complete the creation of health records for people.

In his speech at the conference, Assoc. Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, Minister of Health, said that besides the achieved results, the supply and use of drugs in the past time still faced many challenges. The situation of buying and selling drugs without prescription, especially antibiotics, has led to an increasing risk of antibiotic resistance. Besides, there is still the situation of buying and selling drugs of unknown origin, fake drugs, and poor quality drugs on the market. The drug distribution system also goes through many intermediary stages, making it difficult to trace the origin and control the quality of drugs.

Faced with that situation, on October 25, 2017, the 6th Plenum of the Central Committee of the 12th Party Central Committee issued Resolution 20-NQ/TW on strengthening the protection, care and improvement of health. people in the new situation. One of the tasks and synchronous solutions to promote the development of the pharmaceutical industry is: “Implement synchronous solutions to trace the origin of drugs, rectify the situation of selling drugs without prescription. Apply IT, make connections, ensure control of origin and prices of drugs purchased and sold at each pharmacy nationwide.

Implementing the requirements in Resolution 20, the Government issued Resolution 139 on December 25, 2017 promulgating the Government’s action plan to implement Resolution 20 on strengthening the protection, care and improvement of human health. people’s health in the new situation. Following the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Health has decided to approve the Project on strengthening control of prescription drug prescriptions and sales of prescription drugs for the period 2017-2020. The Ministry of Health also has a plan to implement IT application to the end. connection of drug supply establishments, parallel with the development of regulations to legitimize the compulsory application of IT to connect drug supply establishments across the country.

“This is considered an effective solution to help people conveniently look up information about the origin, quality, expiry date and price of each drug; State agencies have more tools to manage drugs nationwide, control prescriptions, purchase and sell prescription drugs, and enhance publicity and transparency in drug management. At the same time, this is also a typical example of the efforts of the Ministry of Health to build an integrity and tectonic government in the era of science and technology revolution 4.0″, the Minister emphasized.

According to the Drug Administration of Vietnam, over the past time, following the direction of the Ministry of Health, the Department has issued the standard required data output of IT application software that connects drug retailers, version 1.0, including 23 standards. standard requirements for software output connecting from drug retailers to the Department of Health, the Ministry of Health; 18 standard criteria require software output to synthesize general information in the province/city; 12 standard criteria for software output requirements for prescriptions to ensure control over prescriptions, buying and selling drugs