Law No. 15/2023/QH15 dated Januart 9th, 2023 of the National Assembly on Law on Medical Examination and Treatment

Contents regulated in this law include: patients’ rights and obligations; medical practitioners; medical establishments; professional and technical expertise in medical examination and treatment; healthcare provided by application of the traditional medicine and the combination of the traditional medicine and the modern medicine; humanitarian healthcare; not-for-profit healthcare; transfer of professional and technical expertise in healthcare; application of new techniques or methods and clinical trials in healthcare; errors in professional and technical expertise in healthcare; preconditions for health care operations; mobilization and dispatch of resources for use in healthcare in case of occurrence of natural disasters, catastrophes, group-a infectious diseases or state of emergency.

According to Article 26 of this Law, the following professional ranks or titles require practising licenses: Doctors; Physician assistants; Nurses; Midwives; Medical technicians; Clinical nutritionists; (Out-of-hospital) paramedics; Clinical psychologists; Herbalists; Holders of folk remedies or therapies. The validity period of each practising license shall be 05 years and it is valid for use nationwide.

With regard to operating license of medical establishments, it is granted for indefinite term. If a medical establishment has its branches at other locations, each of these branches must hold an operating license separately.

With regard to tax incentives, this Law amends clause 10 of Article 4 in the Law on Corporate Income Tax No. 14/2008/QH12 which has been amended and supplemented according to Law No. 32/2013/QH13, Law No. 71/2014/QH13 and Law No. 61/2020/QH14 relating to incomes exempt from tax of medical establishments:

This Law comes into force as of January 01, 2024, except as defined in clauses 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Article 120. This Law replaces the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 40/2009/QH12 which has been amended and supplemented by the Law No. 21/2017/QH14 .

The regulations on Vietnamese language proficiency conditions applied to foreigners that are set out in point c clause 1 of Article 19 and point c of clause 2 of Article 30 of this Law shall come into force as of January 01, 2032.

Regulations pertaining to information technology infrastructure that are set out in point d clause 2 Article 52 of this Law shall be implemented from January 1, 2027 (with regard to application packages for operating licenses that are submitted from January 01, 2027); by January 1, 2029 at the latest (with regard to medical establishments awarded operating licenses prior to January 01, 2027)

The application of quality standards specified in point a clause 1 Article 57 of this Law shall be applied from January 01, 2025 (with regard to hospitals); from January 01, 2027 (with regard to other forms of organization of medical establishment).

Regulations on levels of professional and technical expertise in healthcare set out in Article 104 of this Law shall come into force as of January 1, 2025.