Ministry of Health publishes internal procurement handbook for drugs and medical supplies — Decision 1589/QĐ-BYT (3 June 2026)

On 3 June 2026 the Ministry of Health (Bộ Y tế) issued Decision 1589/QĐ-BYT, signed by Deputy Minister Lê Đức Luận, promulgating the Sổ tay hướng dẫn — the internal handbook on the contractor-selection ("đấu thầu") process for drugs, chemicals, laboratory supplies and medical equipment within MoH's own system. The decision takes effect on the date of signing. The document explicitly notes that the handbook is operational guidance, not a substitute for law: where there is divergence, the underlying statute applies.

What it is — and is not

The handbook is a 69-page playbook drafted by MoH's Investment Office (Phòng Đầu tư), under the Department of Planning and Finance (Vụ Kế hoạch – Tài chính). It walks officials through the procurement cycle step-by-step — what to plan, what to publish, which forms to file, which thresholds trigger which procedure — using the current 2025-2026 legal stack. It is addressed to "the units under and directly under MoH" (các đơn vị thuộc và trực thuộc Bộ Y tế): central public hospitals, institutes, the regulatory directorates (DAV, VFA, Department of Medical Service Administration, etc.) and ministerial offices that procure on their own budgets.

It is not a circular and not a regulation. It does not bind provincial Departments of Health (Sở Y tế) or non-MoH state hospitals directly, although it will inevitably be read as reference material across the public hospital network.

Why now — Directive 24/CT-TTg as the trigger

The handbook is the MoH-level deliverable for point b, Part 2 of the Prime Minister's Directive 24/CT-TTg (29 July 2024) on accelerating and improving the enforcement of the Bidding Law. Directive 24 instructed line ministries to roll out concrete, sector-specific procurement guidance after the 2023 statute and its 2024–2025 amendments left implementers facing a much-expanded body of secondary law. The 1589 handbook is MoH's response — collapsing into one document the rules an MoH-system procuring entity has to navigate, from plan to contract management.

Legal stack the handbook applies

• Luật Đấu thầu số 22/2023/QH15 (23/6/2023) — the Bidding Law, as amended by Luật 57/2024/QH15 and Luật 90/2025/QH15.
• Nghị định 214/2025/NĐ-CP (4/8/2025) — government decree detailing the Bidding Law on contractor selection.
• Nghị định 42/2025/NĐ-CP (27/2/2025) — MoH's functions, tasks, powers and organisational structure (the institutional anchor).
• Chỉ thị 24/CT-TTg (29/7/2024) — the trigger, on enforcement of the Bidding Law.
• Thông tư 79/2025/TT-BTC (4/8/2025) — Ministry of Finance: information disclosure on bidding and bid-document templates on the National Bidding Network (mạng đấu thầu quốc gia).
• Thông tư 80/2025/TT-BTC (8/8/2025) — Ministry of Finance: templates for bid-solicitation files, evaluation reports, appraisal reports and inspections.
• Thông tư 40/2025/TT-BYT (25/10/2025) — Ministry of Health: bidding for drugs at public healthcare facilities. This is the sector-specific rule that sits closest to the day-to-day flows in this handbook.

Structure — six Parts mapping to procurement modalities

Part 1 — Contractor-Selection Plan (Kế hoạch lựa chọn nhà thầu, KHLCNT). Foundations: planning principles under Articles 37–38 of the Bidding Law, scope of one plan vs. many, multi-year horizons, how to split a procurement estimate (dự toán mua sắm, DTMS) into packages, when packages can be split or must be bundled to preserve technical coherence, and how to anchor package pricing on prior market study. Part 1 also lays out approval flows and the contents of the package-by-package plan submission.

Part 2 — Open competitive bidding, single-stage single-envelope (đấu thầu rộng rãi, một giai đoạn một túi hồ sơ). The full open-tender workflow: drafting and approving the e-bidding documents (E-HSMT), publishing the invitation, issuing / modifying / clarifying the bid documents, opening and evaluating bids (E-HSDT), appraising results, awarding, and contract conclusion / management. Each step lists the responsible role — investor (chủ đầu tư / CĐT), procurement team (TCG), appraisal team (TTĐ), bidder (NT) — using the same role legend throughout.

Part 3 — Competitive offer (chào hàng cạnh tranh). The lighter-touch variant for goods packages within the statutory ceilings. Same backbone (preparation → organisation → evaluation → approval → contract), with the relaxations specific to this modality.

Part 4 — Direct procurement (mua sắm trực tiếp). Used when there is a prior winning contractor for an equivalent package within a permitted window: bid-request file (HSYC), bidder proposal (HSĐX), evaluation, award and contract management. Appraisal of the HSYC is not mandatory.

Part 5 — Designation by appointment, standard process (chỉ định thầu thông thường). Eligibility under Article 23 of the Bidding Law, preparation of the HSYC, identification of the prospective contractor, negotiation, optional result appraisal, approval and contract.

Part 6 — Designation by appointment, simplified process (chỉ định thầu rút gọn). The fastest path: the investor prepares and sends the draft contract directly to the targeted contractor, finalises and approves the result, and publishes it. Bidder eligibility is held to points a, b, c, d, e, g, i of Article 5(1) of the Bidding Law (and the corresponding rules for individual / household-business bidders and for innovation-product proposals under Article 5(3)).

What this means for the MoH system

• For procuring units (hospitals, institutes, directorates): a single self-contained reference that maps every package they run to one of six modalities and walks each modality from plan to contract closeout. Practical effect: less time spent reconciling between the law, the two MoF circulars and the MoH circular; clearer assignment of who signs which step.
• For drug procurement specifically: the handbook works in tandem with Thông tư 40/2025/TT-BYT, which governs hospital drug bidding. The handbook supplies the procedural skeleton (forms, flow, approvals); Thông tư 40 supplies the drug-specific rules (technical groupings, ceilings, price referencing).
• For market participants — suppliers and manufacturers: expect MoH-system procurement to follow the templates in Thông tư 79/2025 and Thông tư 80/2025 of the Ministry of Finance, with the handbook acting as MoH's authoritative reading of how those templates are filled and approved.

Caveat the document itself states (Article 1): the handbook is professional guidance; where it diverges from the underlying law, the law prevails. Treat it as a workflow reference, not a legal source.

References

• Bộ Y tế — Quyết định 1589/QĐ-BYT (3/6/2026), signed Lê Đức Luận. Sổ tay hướng dẫn quy trình đấu thầu nội bộ mua sắm thuốc, hóa chất, vật tư xét nghiệm, thiết bị y tế.
• Source page: emoh.moh.gov.vn (Hệ thống tra cứu văn bản Bộ Y Tế), documentId 11367.
• Thủ tướng Chính phủ — Chỉ thị 24/CT-TTg (29/7/2024) on enforcement of the Bidding Law.
• Quốc hội — Luật Đấu thầu 22/2023/QH15, as amended by Luật 57/2024/QH15 and Luật 90/2025/QH15.
• Chính phủ — Nghị định 214/2025/NĐ-CP (4/8/2025) on contractor selection.
• Bộ Tài chính — Thông tư 79/2025/TT-BTC (4/8/2025) and Thông tư 80/2025/TT-BTC (8/8/2025).
• Bộ Y tế — Thông tư 40/2025/TT-BYT (25/10/2025) on hospital drug bidding.