1000 Community Medical Centers

[Jai Dee]

MINISTRY OF PUBLIC HEALTH TO SET UP COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTERS IN 1,000 VILLAGES

The Ministry of Public Health will ask for a budget to establish the 'Community Medical Centers' mega-project stationed at 1000 villages nationwide.

Dr. PIPAT YINGSERI (พิพัฒน์ ยิ่งเสรี), Deputy Permanent Secretary of Public Health Ministry said that the project has already been approved by the Ministry of Finance and will be submitted to the cabinet for consideration next month. If the green light from the cabinet comes through, the project will kic off in December.

Dr.PIPAT (พิพัฒน์) said that the duration of the project will take four years from 2006-2009, with a budget of 94,790 million baht. He added that currently there are 133,770 patients beds nationwide, but not enough to accommodate more than 63 million people all over the country.

Dr.PIPAT said that the community medical center will provide medical services like hospitals in order to serve patients from remote areas, islands or communities where there is a rapid growth of population.

Finally, Dr. PIPAT (พิพัฒน์) said the objective of the project is to provide convenience and easy accessibility so that people from all areas can get to the medical center within half an hour.

Source: thaisnews.com ประจำวันอาทิตย์ที่ 17 ตุลาคม 2548