Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)

According to Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long, after more than 11 years of implementation, the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2009 has shown a number of problems, including the management of practitioners and health care facilities, which need specific legal mechanisms.

The minister stressed that in order to fix the limitations of the law and resolve current problems, the revision of the law is crucial.

Minister Long said that the revised law will have 12 chapters and 106 articles, three chapters more than the current one. It has been built in the direction of “placing patients in the centre”, he said.

Delivering a verification report on the bill, Chairman of the NA Committee for Social Affairs Nguyen Thuy Anh said that the committee agrees on the necessity of the law revision, and found that it features policies for ethnic minorities, with gender equality issues integrated.

Anh proposed the Government continue to assess the impacts of the revised contents of the bill, while reviewing administrative procedures to each impacted subject, and specifying the Party’s policies and stance on the care of public health.

Regarding prices of medial examination and treatment, Anh said that this is a special service relating to social welfare. Therefore, deciding the prices should be made under the State management.

Many members of the committee agreed on the regulation permitting private clinics to decide the costs of their services in line with relevant laws, she said, stressing that many others pointed to the need to de