Thông tư 27/2017/TT-BYT

CIRCULAR

Guidelines on standards and uses of ambulances

Pursuant to Decree No. 75/2017/ND-CP dated June 20, 2017 of the Government on functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Health;

At the request of the Director General of the Medical Equipment and Construction Department;

The Minister of Health promulgates Guidelines on standards and uses of ambulance.

Article 1. Scope of regulation and regulated entities

1. This Circular provides guidelines on standards and uses of ambulances. To be specific:

a) Standards for ambulances;

b) Uses of ambulances.

2. This Circular applies with the licensed medical examination and treatment establishments (hereinafter referred to as “health facilities”), including:

a) Facilities providing paramedic treatment and transportation services for patients;

b) Hospitals with internal and external means of transportation.

Article 2. Standards for ambulances:

Ambulances are vehicles meeting the requirements specified in Section 3.1.2 of the National Standards TCVN 7271:2003 on Road vehicles – Motor vehicles – Classification in purpose of use, and may only be used if the following standards are met:

1. Standards for the equipment that have to be permanently installed on the outside of the ambulance:

a) Warning devices of emergency vehicles consisting of red rotating or flashing lights on the roof, and sirens. The licence to use warning devices on emergency vehicles shall be issued in compliance with regulations and law on road traffic;

b) Panels displaying information about the vehicle’s owner on both of the front doors shall have a minimum dimension of 45 x 50 cm (HxW). The panels must contain at least the following information:

- Logo of the unit using the vehicle (if any): Minimum dimension of 18 x 18 cm (HxW).

- Name, address and phone number of the health facility that is specified in Clause 2 Article 1 of this Circular.

- The number of the Operation License issued by the competent authority.

The layout of the panels is specified in the Appendix issued together with this Circular.

2. Standards for the equipments inside the ambulance:

a) Main gurney: The sliding type, with seatbelt, and wheels;

b) Seats for medical staff;

c) Plastic flooring sheet: Non-slippery, easy to clean, sanitize, and sterilize;

d) Interior lightings (for emergency treatment);

D) IV hooks;

e) 12V power sockets;

g) Cabinets, shelves, drawers to install the medical devices that come together with oxygen mask, other medical devices, to contain medicines, emergency medical equipments to ensure execution, operation, cleaning, sanitizing, sterilization with ease.

h) Emergency hammer;

If paramedics are needed outside of the hospital, the ambulance must be prepared with an adequate amount of medicine and medical devices as specified in Decision No. 3385/QD-BYT dated September 18, 2012 of the Minister of Health on the List of medication, emergency equipment and equipment needed to perform paramedic procedure on the ambulance;

k) In addition, depending on practical situation and special requirements, health facilities can provide other necessary medical devices to aid the patients.

Article 3. Uses of ambulance.

1. An ambulance may only be used for the following purposes:

a) Transportation of or picking up patients in need of emergency treatment;

b) Transportation of physicians, medical staff, medication, medical devices to aid in disaster emergency management, provision of emergency treatment for road accident victims and serve other urgent needs of the implementation of medical examination, prevention and epidemic prevention.

2. Do not use the ambulance for any other purposes other than those specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

3. Warning devices of an ambulance may only be used under an unexpired license to use warning devices is issued by a competent authority and the ambulance is on a mission in compliance with regulations and law on road traffic.

4. Upon transporting patients in/out of the health facilities, the ambulance must comply with rules and instruction of the health facilities.

Article 4. Responsibility for implementation

1. The Medical Equipment and Construction Department – the Ministry of Health is responsible for: Taking charge and cooperating with the related agencies to direct, provide guidelines, inspect, examine the management and use of the ambulance in nationwide health facilities.

2. The Provincial Departments of Health are responsible for:

Directing, providing guidelines, inspecting, examining the management and use of ambulance within their authority;

b) Monitoring the ambulances of health facilities (including those belong to Ministry of Health and other medical ministries) on their administrative divisions.

c) Sharing annual monitor statistics on ambulances to the local division of the Traffic police.

3. Health facilities are responsible for:

a) Managing the activities of their ambulances;

b) Dispatching ambulances for the right purposes and ensuring punctuality upon requested;

c) Instructing, facilitating and not prohibiting or hindering the ambulances from other health facilities which are on the mission of transporting patients at your facility, even when the patients or their families hire ambulances of other facilities but not yours.

Article 5. Implementation clause

1. This Circular comes into force from September 15, 2017.

Circular No. 16/1998/TT-BYT dated December 15, 1998 of the Minister of Health on import, management and use of ambulances will expire from the day this Circular comes into force.

2. The ambulances that have been in use before this Circular comes into force may still be used if the standards and provisions specified this Circular are met before July 01, 2018.

3. If documents referred to in this document are replaced, amended the new documents will take effect.

Difficulties that arise during the implementation of this Circular should be reported to the Ministry for consideration./.

APPENDIX

The layout of the information panel about the units using the ambulance
(Issued together with Circular No. 27/2017/TT-BYT dated June 28, 2017 of the Minister of Health)

1. Panel layout sample:

2. Letter font and size:

Note: Height and length are minimum measurements.

3. Panel dimension: Height: 45 cm, width: 50 cm

4. Material of and installation of the panel:

Information about the unit can be painted directly or fixed on the 2 doors of the ambulance.