Principles of on-call duty at medical facilities during the Lunar New Year 2024 in Vietnam

1. Principles of on-call duty at medical facilities during the Lunar New Year 2024 in Vietnam

The subjects of on-call examination and treatment during the Lunar New Year 2024 are regulated in Article 42 of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT as follows:

On-call examination and treatment according to the regulations of Chapter VIII of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT applies to medical facilities with inpatient beds; medical facilities with beds; outpatient emergency facilities (hereinafter referred to as medical facilities).

According to the regulations of Article 43 of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT on the principles of on-call examination and treatment at medical facilities, as follows:

- The on-call shift outside of office hours, holidays, and weekends must be organized by medical facilities to ensure continuous medical care on a 24/7 basis.

- The on-call positions must be guaranteed to be easily accessible and have enough communication information.

- The on-call person must be present before the time of taking over to receive the handover of the previous on-call shift. When the shift is up, the on-call person must directly hand over to the next on-call shift. He/ she is be allowed to leave the on-call position and must follow the direct order of their superiors.

- The list of on-call persons is assigned on a monthly basis. The on-call schedule is announced at least one week before the time of on-call shift, approved by the hospital leader and posted on the board at each on-call position. Civil servants, public employees, and workers who have been assigned on-call according to the schedule, can only perform on-call exchanges at the same level when approved by the leader.

Therefore, some outstanding principles on on-call examination and treatment at medical facilities during the Lunar New Year 2024 are as follows:

- Ensuring 24/7 operation: On-call outside of office hours, holidays, and weekends must be organized by medical facilities to ensure continuous medical care 24/7, with sufficient manpower, vehicles, medical equipment and drugs.

- The on-call person is not allowed to leave the position arbitrarily and must follow the orders of his/her superiors.

2. Content of the report on the situation of the on-call shift in Vietnam

After the on-call shift, the on-call departments shall fully record into the report on the situation of the on-call shift, specifically:

- After the on-call shift, the on-call departments shall fully record into the on-call book; the departments must organize a briefing to listen to the report on the on-call situation of the on-call departments: clinical, paraclinical, logistics, administration.

- The clinical on-call report must ensure the report of developments in the on-call shift for the following contents:
+ Death: Clearly record the patient's condition, treatment, cause, time of death, and specific actions after the patient's death;

+ Emergency: Clearly record the name, age, address, diagnosis, and solution for each patient who comes to the emergency room;

+ Serious development of inpatients: Clearly record the developments of the disease, the solution for each patient;

+ Drugs: Statistics, report the number of drugs used in the on-call shift.

+ Paraclinical on-call: Report on the situation of emergency tests and paraclinical techniques performed during the regular on-call shift.

+ Logistics, administration on-call: Report the contents as prescribed in clause 4 of Article 44 of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT.

+ Leadership on-call: Have a general comment on the situation of the regular on-call shift at the hospital-wide briefing. (Based on Article 45 of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT)

Therefore, after each on-call shift, the relevant departments must fully report the content as prescribed. Specifically, the clinical on-call departments must report on death, emergency, inpatient development, and drugs. The paraclinical on-call departments must report on tests and paraclinical techniques during the on-call shift.