Health Ministry seeks extra Bt5 billion for state-run hospitals

By The Nation

 

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn

 

The Public Health Ministry on Tuesday will ask the Cabinet to grant an additional budget of at least Bt5 billion for state-run hospitals.

 

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said on Monday that most state-run hospitals had cash-flow problems, and his ministry would therefore request the additional funding as the Cabinet was preparing a mid-year budget plan. 

 

“We have already talked to the Budget Bureau,” he added. 

 

Piyasakol said the additional budget, as and when granted, would not solely go to hospitals under his ministry, but also to medical schools and the Defence Ministry. 

 

The government has allocated just Bt7,000 per person covered by hospitals in the current fiscal year, which runs until September 30, the minister pointed out. 

 

“But for hospitals to stay afloat, it needs [to allocate] Bt8,000 per head per year,” Piyasakol said. 

 

Last year, the Public Health Ministry also sought – and received – an additional budget from the middle of the fiscal year to help hospitals suffering serious cash-flow issues.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30339748

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-27

32 minutes ago, webfact said:

Health Ministry seeks extra Bt5 billion for state-run hospitals

No have money for health. Need money (300 million) for useless but important Thai Niyom programme to promote goodwill for PM Prayut. Also money needed soon to pay for submarines. 

Go ask Toon Bodyslam to do another run.

Edited February 26, 20188 yr by Cadbury

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn said on Monday that most state-run hospitals had cash-flow problems, and his ministry would therefore request the additional funding as the Cabinet was preparing a mid-year budget plan.

While the easy reaction on this topic would be a simple "but submarines" reply, I think this is a clear signal the system itself will be unsustainable.

First they needed 7K per head, now 8K, and soon it will be 9K, 10K, etc.

 

The problem is that the field of medicine keeps developing; almost everything can be treated nowadays.

That won't be cheap though, where they let people die with some diseases a decade ago they now can keep them alive a few years extra for a lot of money. Medicine itself also gets more and more expensive, and the wages of medical personel keeps going up.

 

Add to that the ageing population in Thailand and you know the bubble is going to burst at some point.

 

There is simply not enough money to offer free healthcare to a growing, ageing population that is getting more unhealthy by the day.

They need to come up with a solution, one way or the other.

 

(similar problems in the west by the way, but at least the tax base is a lot larger there and the population will be shrinking not too far in the future)

Toon better gets his shoes back on then  . . . .  

Speaking of the health ministry, is there any update on their high up official who ran over the security guard and left him for dead? I hope their protection of him is not using state (taxpayer) funds. (of course their budgets merge into personal funds so it will be)