At the same time, the Drug Administration of Vietnam was required to direct production establishments, businesses, and importers to quickly find the supply of anesthetics to meet the treatment needs of the specialized dental and maxillofacial hospitals.
Regarding long-term solutions, the Deputy Minister of Health said that the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance for coordinating with relevant sectors including the Ministry of Health to review documents related to bidding for procurement of drugs and equipment; if the Ministry and responsible agencies detect unreasonable regulations in bidding for procurement of drugs and equipment, they will amend and supplement immediately.
The Ministry of Health has reviewed and added some amendments for the Ministry of Finance’s consideration. The Ministry of Health has just issued three circulars related to the registration of circulation of drugs, examining the biology and traditional medicine, and getting comments on amending Circular 15 on drug procurement in public health facilities so that it can be issued soon.
Mr. Tran Cao Binh, Director of the National Odonto-Stomatology Hospital, said that there are two main suppliers of made in France and made in Canada anesthetics to the hospital. The hospital's demand for local anesthetics ranges from 1,000-2,000 tubes per week. Recently, anesthetic suppliers have notified hospitals about the shortage of 2 percent lidocaine.
Therefore, the hospital has actively and flexibly contacted other local anesthetic suppliers to provide local anesthetics with concentrations of 2-percent Lidocaine and 4-percent Artecaine which are more expensive than current local anesthetics; thus, the hospital will use them alternately.
