
Hanoi (VNA) – More than 6,000 cancerpatients have been provided with treatment drugs with a total value of 1.6 trillion VND(nearly 66 million USD) from 2019 to the end of August 2023, heard a conference held by the Ministry ofHealth in Hanoi on November 8.
Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of HealthTran Van Thuan said that drug support programmes have humane and practicalmeanings to patients, helping to reduce treatment costs and increase the rateof access to medical treatment, especially special medicines that have big treatmentcosts and have not yet covered by the Health Insurance Fund.
Besides positive implications, the programmes havealso revealed a number of shortcomings and limitations that need to beadjusted and modified to suit the real treatment situation.
A representative of the Supportive Fund for Cancer Patients - Bright Tomorrow expressed the hope that sponsoring companies will continue to support the programmes so that more patients will have opportunities to continue their treatment until health insurance covers thetreatment costs or there are alternative drugs. It also is necessaryto simplify administrative procedures so that patients can participate in theprogrammes more easily.
Meanwhile, a representative of K Hospital said that each drug programmehas different administrative procedures and implementation processes are notthe same, therefore it takes more time to complete procedures before receivingthe aided drugs. However, the costs of drugs are still high compared to patients' ability, forcing many of them to withdraw from theprogrammes.
Other hospitals also proposedthe Ministry of Health consider shortening the approval time fordrugs to optimise the “golden time” in treating cancer patients./.