To unify procurement focal points, enhance the efficiency of state budget and health insurance fund utilization, and simultaneously ensure the supply of quality medicines and medical supplies for medical examination and treatment, on January 9, 2026, the Ministry of Health officially issued Circular No. 01/2026/TT-BYT.

This Circular details the national centralized procurement list for medical equipment and testing supplies. This is an important legal document built upon the Law on Bidding 2023 and its guiding decrees. Below are the key contents that Departments of Health, Hospitals, and medical examination and treatment facilities need to grasp to prepare for implementation.

Principles and criteria for list development

The selection of items for the national centralized procurement list is not random but must strictly adhere to the regulations in Article 53 of the Law on Bidding. According to Circular No. 01/2026/TT-BYT, selected medical equipment and testing supplies must simultaneously meet the following 03 core criteria:

• First, these must be items with significant costs, high usage frequency at medical facilities, and substantial impact on the payment capacity of the Health Insurance Fund.
• Second, the selection is based on practical evaluation results from the pilot centralized bidding process for medical supplies in the previous period (2019-2020), ensuring inheritance and promoting efficiency.
• Third, the list must align with the professional technical needs of hospitals and ensure feasibility during the bidding and supply organization process.

Details of the National Centralized Procurement List

In this Circular, the Ministry of Health has finalized a list comprising 02 groups of medical equipment and supplies for cardiovascular intervention and ophthalmology, which have very high usage demand. Specifically:

1. Intraocular Lens Group
Types of intraocular lenses included in the centralized procurement list:

• Soft, monofocal, aspheric, two haptics, hydrophobic Acrylic material, yellow, not pre-loaded in injector.
• Soft, monofocal, aspheric, two haptics, hydrophilic Acrylic material, yellow, not pre-loaded in injector.
• Soft, monofocal, aspheric, two haptics, hydrophobic Acrylic material, transparent colorless, not pre-loaded in injector.
• Soft, monofocal, aspheric, two haptics, hydrophilic Acrylic material, transparent colorless, not pre-loaded in injector.

2. Coronary Artery Stent Group
Regulated types of coronary stents include:

• Sirolimus-eluting stent with polymer, alloy frame, with stent strut thickness greater than 60 µm.
• Everolimus-eluting stent with polymer, alloy frame, with stent strut thickness greater than 60 µm.

Roadmap and implementation organization

To ensure units have sufficient time to prepare regarding human resources, infrastructure, and professional processes, the Circular clearly stipulates the application roadmap as follows:

Circular No. 01/2026/TT-BYT takes effect from March 1, 2026.

However, national centralized procurement activities for the items in the aforementioned list will commence from January 1, 2027. This buffer period aims to help units complete old bidding contracts and prepare demand data for the new centralized procurement period.

In the coming time, units under the Ministry of Health, Departments of Health of provinces and cities, and private medical facilities participating in health insurance examination and treatment need to proactively review the demand for using items in the list. Compliance with the centralized procurement process is not only a mandatory legal requirement but also contributes to the transparency of bidding activities and the reduction of input material costs, thereby bringing direct benefits to patients and the social security system.

Truong Phan Hong Ha – Center for Support and Continuing Education