On January 9, 2023, the National Assembly issued the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 (“Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023”). The law will take effect from January 1, 2024. Recently, on December 31, 2023, the Ministry of Health issued Circular No. 32/2023/TT-BYT (“Circular 32”) detailing a number of articles of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 focusing on on contents related to the implementation of training and practice of medical staff as well as the rights and obligations of people in the medical examination and treatment process. Below are some outstanding contents in Circular 32.
1. Strict regulations on health examinations
- Requires a full medical examination with the following contents according to each specialty
According to the regulations in the form of health examination certificate issued in Circular 32, when going for a health examination, the health examination subject must pay attention to the full examination of the contents according to each specialty. In difficult cases, it is necessary to consult or order a clinical test to determine the diagnosis and the extent of illness and disease as a basis for health classification. Except for cases where the health examination subject performs the examination upon request and does not fully examine all specialties as prescribed, the health examination facility only examines and concludes for each specialty upon request and does not classify them.
- Limit the issuance of multiple copies of Health Examination Certificate
According to previous regulations, in addition to 01 original copy, if the person receiving a health examination requests multiple health examination certificates, the health examination facility will duplicate the health examination certificate in the number required by the person receiving the health examination. physical examination.
According to Circular 32, in addition to 01 original, the person receiving a health examination can still be issued many health examination certificates upon request but with stricter management. Accordingly, the health examination facility duplicates the health examination certificate according to the provisions of Decree 30/2020/ND-CP - "documents are duplicated in the correct quantity determined at the recipient", that is, The health certificate must clearly state the number of copies and the recipient of this health certificate. This regulation will partly overcome the situation of buying, selling, and using fake health certificates that have occurred widely in recent times.
- Require health examination facilities to store health examination certificates
In addition to issuing health examinations to people, Circular 32 stipulates that health examination facilities must save 01 copy of the health examination certificate to serve information retrieval (if necessary). This not only ensures the responsibility of the health examination facility, but also limits the acts of falsifying health certificates by bad subjects.
2. Order and procedures for resolving disputes when a medical accident occurs
Circular 32 stipulates that dispute resolution when a medical accident occurs must go through at least the following steps:
Step 1: When a medical accident occurs, the patient or the patient's representative has the right to request and the hospital or hospital management agency must establish a professional council to determine the cause of the medical accident. error, the practitioner's error and the form of handling that practitioner (if any).
Step 2: The professional council must issue a written conclusion and send it to relevant parties.
Step 3: The relevant parties have the full right to decide whether to accept or disagree with the content of the conclusion document. If you do not agree, continue to petition the higher management agencies of that hospital/agency up to the highest level, which is the Ministry of Health.
Step 4: The superior management agencies that receive the recommendations must establish a Professional Council and issue a written conclusion. The conclusion of the Professional Council established by the Ministry of Health is the document with the highest value.
Step 5: After receiving the most valuable written conclusion from the Professional Council established by the Ministry of Health, if the relevant parties still do not agree, then the parties initiate a lawsuit in court.
According to our assessment, this regulation will cause difficulties and limit the rights of patients/patients' families in case of medical complications. Because assuming the medical accident is real, has happened, the patient has been affected, but with this process, they themselves do not know how long they will have to fight to protect their rights and claim their benefits. . Specifically, the resolution process must go through too many steps and levels before the dispute can be brought to court. At the same time, the Circular does not clearly state the time limit within which hospitals or health management agencies must carry out related work or issue a written conclusion on medical complications.
Circular 32 takes effect from January 1, 2024.
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