Is it difficult to buy medicine? Are medical resources tight? The latest response from the State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism!

On December 14, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council held a press conference to introduce the situation of medical and health service guarantee and drug production and supply. The heads of relevant departments and experts of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Health Commission, and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention attended the press conference and answered questions from the media.

Increase the supply of key drugs in the market and try to ease the problem of difficulty in buying drugs

Zhou Jian, deputy director of the Department of Consumer Goods Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that overall, my country's COVID-19 treatment drug production capacity can meet the drug demand of patients. With the recent increase in the number of patients, the demand for drugs has surged, and some regions and some varieties have been in short supply. We give full play to the advantages of the new national system, and do everything possible to promote enterprises to quickly stabilize production and achieve full production, expand capacity and production, increase the market supply of key drugs, guide reasonable, orderly and precise delivery, and strive to alleviate the problem of difficulty in buying drugs.

First, we will focus on key points and go all out to ensure stable production and full production. For the manufacturers of relevant drugs in the "New Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (9th Edition)" and the "Guidelines for Home Chinese Medicine Intervention for Patients Infected with New Coronavirus", we will further increase the guarantee of production factors, and include all relevant manufacturers and key supporting enterprises in the white list to ensure stable and orderly production and supply. We will dispatch special envoys to enterprises to work with local relevant departments to ensure the production and supply of key drugs, and promptly help solve difficult problems such as logistics, labor, water, electricity, and raw material procurement, and support enterprises to work overtime, race against time, and run at full capacity to quickly enter full-load production.

Second, we will take multiple measures to accelerate the expansion of key enterprises. We will help enterprises formulate plans for increasing production and capacity by "one drug, one policy", and find ways to tap existing production capacity and further increase product output through technological transformation, new production lines and commissioned production. We will guide enterprises to scientifically improve production processes and improve production efficiency. We will focus on antipyretic and analgesic drugs, insist on daily scheduling and weekly reporting, establish emergency duty and rapid response mechanisms, and do everything possible to increase production.

The third is to deliver drugs accurately to ensure the drug needs of key groups. Panic buying and hoarding of drugs will make it difficult for patients who really need drugs to buy them. In the face of the current large demand, the accurate delivery of drugs is the key to solving resource mismatch and avoiding drug waste. We guide relevant local parties to formulate work plans, and give priority to ensuring the supply of drugs in key places such as medical institutions and nursing homes in accordance with the principles of patient priority and accurate delivery. At the same time, we organize large online pharmacies to develop an online drug purchasing platform for patients, which can deliver drugs to patients in a timely manner after real-name authentication and uploading of antigen test certificates.

Medical institutions shall not refuse to treat or shirk critically ill patients for any reason.

Jiao Yahui, director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that according to the National Health Commission, all provinces in the country have introduced relevant measures, and medical institutions are also further refining relevant measures. For example, Shanghai requires all hospital outpatient clinics to distinguish between nucleic acid positive reception areas and nucleic acid negative reception areas, and to set up diagnosis and treatment areas and buffer zones in emergency departments; for patients with acute and critical illnesses, they must be treated by municipal-level medical institutions, and at the same time, the capacity of critical care resources must be further expanded and transformed; many cities such as Beijing, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Nanchang require hospitals to set up nucleic acid negative treatment areas and nucleic acid positive treatment areas in ordinary outpatient clinics. Emergency patients with 48-hour nucleic acid negative certificates will directly enter the rescue area, and those without 48-hour nucleic acid negative certificates will enter the buffer area to provide corresponding medical emergency services. All localities have also followed the requirements of the National Health Commission, emphasizing that patients with acute and critical illnesses must not be refused or shirked for any reason.

What to do when medical resources are tight? The National Health Commission has taken four measures

Jiao Yahui, director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that in recent times, the National Health Commission has also taken a series of measures to address the prominent and rapidly growing demand for diagnosis and treatment in fever clinics.

First, we will further expand the supply of medical resources and services. We require all hospitals above the second level and primary medical and health institutions to open fever clinics or fever clinics, and we have been vigorously promoting this in recent times. According to statistics, as of 12:00 on December 14, more than 14,000 fever clinics were opened in hospitals above the second level nationwide, and more than 33,000 fever clinics or fever clinics were set up in primary medical and health institutions. While increasing the number of fever clinics or fever clinics, we have also further simplified the fever clinic visit process. The vast majority of patients go to the fever clinic mainly to prescribe drugs to treat symptoms related to COVID-19. Many places have also opened simple fever clinics to further improve service efficiency. According to statistics from some places, the average visit time to the fever clinic has been shortened from more than 4 hours at the beginning to less than 40 minutes. In addition, medical institutions in various places are also increasing designated hospitals, sub-designated hospitals, and the expansion and renovation of critical care resources in hospitals above the second level, the increase of critical care beds in tertiary hospitals, the equipment, the training of medical staff, and the expansion and renovation of convertible ICUs. The above work is being promoted in full swing. All 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have formulated corresponding plans and allocated funds, and these efforts are also being promoted and implemented.

The second measure is to promote hierarchical diagnosis and treatment. On the one hand, in cities, medical alliances are used as carriers, and in rural areas, county-level medical communities are used as carriers to promote the implementation of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 and other medical services. Let the three-level urban and rural networks and medical institutions fulfill their respective functional positioning.

The third measure is to vigorously promote Internet medical services. Through Internet medical services, according to the diagnosis and treatment plan and home treatment guidelines, corresponding prescriptions are issued to patients with COVID-19 symptoms, and corresponding medicines are provided through offline third-party delivery. At the same time, we also require medical institutions to provide 24-hour online consultation and medication guidance, as well as time-divided appointment services.

Fourthly, we will continue to optimize the process of fever clinics, general clinics, and hospitalization. By optimizing the medical process, we will provide greater convenience for the general public to see a doctor in medical institutions.

Establish a docking mechanism between communities and medical institutions to smooth the referral channels

Gao Guangming, deputy director of the Medical Emergency Department of the National Health Commission, said that after the implementation of the "New Ten Articles", the National Health Commission still recommends that patients with mild symptoms, asymptomatic patients and relatively stable underlying diseases be isolated at home and receive home treatment. Medical institutions can provide rehabilitation guidance and psychological support to people at home through a combination of online and offline methods such as remote guidance and Internet medical care. For patients with severe illness and high risk factors for severe illness, they can go to designated hospitals for treatment. If the underlying disease is more serious and needs to be treated in a comprehensive and specialized hospital, you can connect with the community health service agencies around you and let them help with referrals. When the situation is more urgent, you can also go directly to the relevant medical institutions for treatment.

Strengthen the production and dispatch of key medical supplies to meet the needs of the people

Zhou Jian, deputy director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that after the introduction of the 20 optimization measures and the "new ten" measures, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology further strengthened the production and scheduling of key medical supplies such as antigen testing reagents, vaccines and protective supplies.

The first is antigen detection reagents. my country is a major producer of detection reagents. At present, the National Medical Products Administration has approved 42 new coronavirus antigen detection reagent products. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has included all antigen detection reagent manufacturers in the white list, given key guarantees, and dispatched production and supply on a daily basis. Together with local industry and information technology departments, effective measures have been taken to help these companies solve problems in production and operation and ensure production factors. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has guided production companies to purchase and reserve key raw and auxiliary materials, establish a multi-channel supply mechanism for raw materials, and ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain.

Second, the COVID-19 vaccine. my country has built the world's largest COVID-19 vaccine production line. The annual production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines exceeds 7 billion doses, and 5.5 billion doses have been provided, which is fully able to meet the needs of the current epidemic prevention and control situation. At present, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will focus on production scheduling, strengthen quality management, and ensure vaccine supply.

The third is protective equipment such as masks. my country's protective equipment industry has a solid foundation for development. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production capacity of protective equipment such as masks has expanded rapidly to meet the needs of epidemic prevention and control. Recently, in response to the rising demand for N95 masks, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has focused on strengthening the production and scheduling of N95 masks to ensure prevention and control needs.

Will COVID-19 testing and treatment be done at home? Response from the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council

Gao Guangming, deputy director of the Medical Emergency Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that on December 7, the Comprehensive Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council issued the "New Ten Articles". On the same day, the Comprehensive Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council issued the "Guidelines for Home Treatment of Patients Infected with New Coronavirus", which mainly requires that asymptomatic infected persons and mild cases with conditions for home isolation can generally adopt home isolation and home treatment according to the hierarchical and classified treatment strategy, and choose appropriate drugs for treatment. For those with worsening symptoms, according to the actual situation, they can be transferred to the fever clinic of relevant medical and health institutions by self-driving or calling 120 ambulances for timely treatment. It is also clearly stated in the "Guidelines" that grassroots medical and health institutions should establish a 24-hour duty system to promptly respond to inquiries and consultations from the majority of residents. At the same time, the community (village) should arrange nucleic acid testing and environmental sanitation.

Source: CCTV News