Large hospitals nationwide to provide treatment only to critical patients

The Public Health Ministry has recelty announced that only large scale hosipitals will provide medical treatment to emergency and critical patients. The project has an objective to reduce crowdedness of the hospitals.

Public Health Minister Md.Mongkhol Na Songkhla (มงคล ณ สงขลา) says the ministry has already implemented the project’s pilot phase with the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital. According to Md.Mongkhol, more than 50 percent of the out-patient department (O.P.D)’s patients are effectively cured by physicians of community public health stations. They have no need to receive treatment from specialist physicians in large hospitals.

The minister also affirms that community public health stations can provide efficient health examination and primary care to patients. If patients have severe condition, the public health stations will immediately deliver them to central hospitals.

The ministry will at the same time develop skills of public health personnel stationed in community public health stations to create more confidence among patients.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 04 April 2007

Is this a way to squeeze out of the governments' recent pledges on health care? Are "public health care stations" adequately staffed and funded? There might be a reason the hospitals are already so crowded... on the other hand, perhaps the community health stations are also so overstaffed that the overflow went to the hospitals. They can't pay halfway for healthcare- someone's gotta pay for it at some point, whether it's the consumer or the taxpayer.

Are the public health care stations called "annamai" in Thai (sorry no idea of the spelling)? if so, they are not staffed by doctors AFAIK.

Just another case where the newest post-coup ruling elite wishes to reduce expenditures to the public, especially the rural poor, in order to keep more for themselves. and they certainly would not want a hospital bed taken up by some farmer when it could go to a person who is paying for private care. It is the sufficiency economy taken to preposterous extremes, be happy with your medic at the community health center and be happy even though you can't afford a real doctor.

the 30b health care scheme , whilst a great votewinner , is bound to bankrupt the health ministry before long unless it gets much much more funding. it was ill planned from the start.

the uk health service is struggling to fund treatments and pay wages and that swallows billions of pounds.

if local clinics are staffed by well trained personel , there is no reason why they shouldnt be capable of reducing the workload of the hospitals.

there is no reason why a specialist should have to waste time treating a sore throat or broken leg when he could be better utilised diagnosing and treating heart problems or malignant disease.

the 30b health care scheme , whilst a great votewinner , is bound to bankrupt the health ministry before long unless it gets much much more funding. it was ill planned from the start.

the uk health service is struggling to fund treatments and pay wages and that swallows billions of pounds.

if local clinics are staffed by well trained personel , there is no reason why they shouldnt be capable of reducing the workload of the hospitals.

there is no reason why a specialist should have to waste time treating a sore throat or broken leg when he could be better utilised diagnosing and treating heart problems or malignant disease.

Perhaps the Health Ministry could use some more funding. Dare I suggest taking away some funding from the military and putting into healthcare. Dare I suggest taxing the rich a tad more to even out healthcare. Perhaps the same change could occur in the UK and in the US for the betterment of global health.

I have no problem with providing first aid care at local clinics. Heck, when in-country I use the local pharmacist as my first line of defense against common ailments. But in the rural areas these health clinics are not often staffed by doctors who can detect what is perhaps a more serious medical issue that needs more specific care and what can be treated locally. Rural folks often only head to the hospital when local care has failed to generate improvement. My take is that now they will have to go through more hoops that will take more time, often critical time, to see a competant doctor or specialist.

And none of the discussion has been about specialists having to provide general care. Nobody is asking an oncologist to set a broken femur.

What da ya expect for 30 baht?

While I can certainly appreciate the concerns of Johpa and others, lest we forget the source of this little news item is the Center for Gobbly-Gook.

It is extremely difficult to get a legitimate "take" regarding precisely what changes, if indeed any real ones are, are actually occurring from this frequently-misspelled, woefully inept-worded, and confusingly-written, news bit from our good friends at TNNBPRD.

Try as they do, and I'd offer to help them for free, to construct viable news reporting... sadly, they've failed yet again.

so will LOS now mean Land of Surgery?

It's always a difficult call as to what to do when there is an injury or illness. Most people (here) over-react and go the Dr. It's probably not a bad idea to have some screening process in place.

I know parents who are forever taking their kids to the doc for the absolutely smallest complaint. At least the people doing the screening can assure overly cautious people that all is well.