Businesses must not take advantage of epidemics to raise prices of medical supplies

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Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, Director of the Department of Medical Equipment and Facilities, Ministry of Health.

People are concerned over the scarcity of masks and medical supplies for the prevention of coronavirus, what measures does the Ministry of Health have to handle this, sir?

In some places, there has been speculation and the accumulation of medical supplies causing scarcity affecting the needs of people and the prevention of epidemics. Therefore, the Department of Medical Equipment and Health Works has sent official dispatches to more than 40 enterprises manufacturing and trading medical equipment to evaluate their production capacity and quantity of inventory.

The department is also urging units to improve production capacity to meet the needs of the people. However, after the Lunar New Year holidays, the units faced difficulties due to the inadequate labor force. Besides, most of the materials used for manufacturing masks are imported from China, while in the current situation of Chinese outbreaks, they also kept raw materials for domestic use. Therefore, we are asking businesses to find new sources of raw materials, the most important thing is to ensure quality and put them into production immediately. Therefore, in the future, it is expected that businesses will supply the market with the necessary masks to ensure the prevention of disease.

In addition to medical masks, the Department of Medical Equipment and Facilitieshas asked units to import ventilators and monitors in case of emergency to meet requirements forepidemicprevention, meeting the levels of disease prevention plans of the Ministry of Health.

With some medical equipment businesses arbitrarily raising prices, what is the solution of the Ministry of Health to ensure the rights of the people?

The Ministry of Health has made a written request to market management forces to strengthen the inspection, control and handling of speculation in purchasing and pushing up pricesof a number of production and business establishments.

For manufacturing enterprises, in order to prevent speculation and pushing up prices, we are in discussion with the Department of Financial Planning and Department of Health to request in writing enterprises not to comply with regulations. If the error is incorrect, it will be handled according to the sanctions of the current laws.

We also havemade written requests for businesses not to take advantage of the epidemic to raise prices of masks, clothing, and goggles; do not sell to purchasing units, speculators to raise prices or sell when domestic demand is increasing, and causing market scarcity.

In particular, during the current epidemic, the Ministry of Health has issued a lot of documents requiring units to improve corporate responsibility to the community and business ethics, not to raise prices in providing epidemic prevention.

With retail pharmacies, which are pushing up the price of masks, the responsibility of inspecting and handling violations rests with the inspection of local health departments and in the spirit of drastic guidance of the Deputy Prime Minister, Vu Duc Dam, if any drugstore arbitrarily raises the price of its mask, it may be immediately revoked.

In particular, the Prime Minister has directed and is ready to sacrifice economic benefits to protect the health and lives of the people, so more than ever, organizations and businesses need to show their responsibility for society and the whole country in preventing and fighting diseases.

I think that with the above drastic moves of the Government and the Ministry of Health, businesses themselves will also speed up the pace of production and business in the future, the increase in price of profiteering on medical supplies of establishments will be significantly reduced.