Thai Hospitals Face Staff Shortages Ahead Of AEC

[webfact]

Dearth of hospital staff ahead of AEC

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation

Private facilities team up with medical, nursing schools in Kingdom and abroad to train, recruit medical workers

BANGKOK: -- Private hospitals urgently need to recruit medical workers, including nurses and physicians, in a bid to strengthen their businesses and prepare for the intense competition in the healthcare industry expected when the Asean Economic Community (AEC) becomes effective in 2015.

Meanwhile, premium private hospitals have teamed up with medical and nursing schools in countries such as Australia and the Philippines to build the capacity of their medical workers, especially specialists, and strengthen competitiveness.

When the AEC is implemented, people in Asean countries will be able to receive health care services in any country in this region with the same standard. Medical workers will also be allowed to work in any country. This means the demand for doctors at hospitals will increase.

"We are preparing our hospital for the AEC by recruiting more doctors and nurses and ensuring they stay with the hospital," Yanhee Hospital managing director Dr Supot Sumritvanitcha said.

He said the hospital has prepared itself over the past two years to reduce the impact of the regional integration under the AEC.

The hospital is planing to recruit more than 50 doctors and 200 nurses. The hospital currently has 120 physicians and 500 nurses.

The hospital has imported 50 nurses from the Philippines to work as assistants and translators for Thai nurses and doctors, as they can speak English and communicate with foreign patients very well.

At present, the hospital has 23 translators who can communicate in 15 different languages.

Yanhee Hospital, the country's leading plastic surgery hospital, has invested about Bt1 billion to build two new buildings, taking the number of beds from 400 to 600. Moreover, it has purchased more high-tech medical devices such as surgical equipment, laser devices and computed tomography (CT) scans.

"We want the hospital to become a one-stop healthcare service. Patients do not need to go anywhere else after receiving treatment and services from our medical workers," he said.

"Actually we want to be a beauty complex and excellence centre," he added.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services (BDMS), operator of Bangkok Hospital, Samithivej Hospital and BNH Hospital, has recruited more medical personnel including physicians, nurses and pharmacists, to work in its hospitals.

BDMS director and executive adviser Dr Pongsak Viddayakorn said the hospital has also teamed up with other medical and nursing schools in Australia and the Philippines to exchange medical workers and receive training to develop their skills. The hospital has created in-house training programmes to develop skills for its specialists.

Moreover, the hospital has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Burapha University's Faculty of Medicine to train physicians. The hospital has also joined with Srinakharinwirot University's Faculty of Medicine to open an international course for medical students.

"We do not have enough manpower. Moreover, the government has neglected the shortage of medical personnel," he said.

He said it would likely be necessary to import medical workers from other countries in future.

Some medical schools run by the government are now trying to set up medical units and operate like private hospitals.

"They [medical schools] are now trying to keep their physicians and medical workers to work with them but it is not so easy to do that, because they cannot afford to pay the monthly salaries of medical workers, as private hospitals can," he said.

Thailand has 30,681 physicians to provide medical treatment for its over 60 million population. It needs 11,984 more physicians to fill the shortage.

"We need to control and balance the number of physicians working in private and state hospitals," said Health Service Support Department director-general Dr Somchai Pinyo Phonpanich, who oversees the AEC adaptation plan for the healthcare sector.

The department is drawing up a

plan to prepare the public health sector for the AEC in the next three years. Under the plan, the department will develop all related regulations to leverage healthcare service standards, especially the standard of healthcare units and practitioners.

Meanwhile, Medical Council of Thailand secretary-general Dr Samphan Kongrit said the council has teamed up with the Public Health Ministry to produce more physicians to resolve the doctor shortage.

At present, the ministry can produce 2,000 doctors a year. It is expected there will be an additional 10,000 physicians trained in the next five years.

Moreover, the council has drawn up a plan to encourage educational institutes, especially medical schools, to introduce an international medical curriculum for foreign students.

He said the plan is aimed at pushing Thailand as a medical education centre in Asean and a generator of revenue for the country.

-- The Nation 2012-04-23

[geriatrickid]

They are competing for philippina nurses? Good luck on that. The USA and Canada are offering some lucrative incentives such as bonuses and citizenship. Lemme think how Nurse Mary Taglog will react? A chance to work in Thailand with long hours, crappy pay and the hassles of visa runs or a chance at a better life in the USA/Canada with decent pay, regulated hours and working conditions, and an opportunity over time to sponsor a family as immigrants. I have a feeling, Thailand will attract the sediment in the international talent pool.

[pipo1000]

I see someone is dreaming again.

[LuckyLew]

Of course they are short staffed on the hospitals.

So many quit or left for other jobs after their

"cold syrup" bonus payments were surprising cut off.

I think they should ban hospitals in Thailand. These

pesky little places are such a breading ground for

crime and corruption. We cannot have these sort of

activities in Thailand.

God forbid a doctor gets caught looking at a nudie photo

while filling his duffle bag with cough syrup ... imagine the

outrage

[moe666]

They are competing for philippina nurses? Good luck on that. The USA and Canada are offering some lucrative incentives such as bonuses and citizenship. Lemme think how Nurse Mary Taglog will react? A chance to work in Thailand with long hours, crappy pay and the hassles of visa runs or a chance at a better life in the USA/Canada with decent pay, regulated hours and working conditions, and an opportunity over time to sponsor a family as immigrants. I have a feeling, Thailand will attract the sediment in the international talent pool.

Unfortunately the US is down on the list for Philippino staff as they have made it harder for staff to obtain jobs. It takes up to 2 years to get approval for the US and only 1 year or less for other destinations. My daughter in law is half Philippino and she as several cousins that follow this path to a better life and it tends to run thru the middleeast to england as they are easier to obtain visas and approval for jobs. Yes and Canada is another destination as well

[Ijustwannateach]

Yup... and conditions can be terrible at those places, especially for the nurses. Guess they'll really have to start putting money into the salaries there!!!

[1bbcd5]

Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!

[BigJohnnyBKK]

In fact the AEC will see huge incentives for medical practitioners to leave Thailand in droves.

They have a much bigger problem than they realize, and no realistic solutions in sight.

[sparebox2]

In fact the AEC will see huge incentives for medical practitioners to leave Thailand in droves.

They have a much bigger problem than they realize, and no realistic solutions in sight.

Just change the law in Thailand, to allow only Thai speaking and writing doctors (could be from AEC) to work in Thailand.

Problem solved.

[whybother]

In fact the AEC will see huge incentives for medical practitioners to leave Thailand in droves.

They have a much bigger problem than they realize, and no realistic solutions in sight.

Just change the law in Thailand, to allow only Thai speaking and writing doctors (could be from AEC) to work in Thailand.

Problem solved.

How will that stop shortages?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I believe in order to practice medicine in Thailand, MDs at least do have to pass some kind of Thai language test. That already explains the pretty small numbers of non-Thai doctors practicing here now. But I'm not sure if that same requirement applies to nurses or nurse's aides.

I was talking about that subject sometime back with the American GP/MD at Mission Hospital in BKK who's one of the very few farang doctors anywhere around... There at least used to be a couple in BKK, one formerly from the UK and another. But one has pretty much retired...and the short list has been getting shorter.

My wife works as a nurse's aide in a private hospital in BKK, and most of the staff don't seem very happy about their working conditions or pay, as best as I can tell. But also, most (unlike my wife) only speak Thai and not any English or other languages. So I'm not sure how much prospect they have in other countries.

A lot of the private hospitals these days are making a big push for attracting (paying) foreign and medical tourism patients. So attracting (kind of English speaking) Filipina nurses aides in the future once the Asian rules change would seem a pretty likely result.

As for the Thai doctors, a lot of the good ones would certainly like to leave Thailand... but not for other Southeast Asian countries, but rather the U.S. and Europe...

[culicine]

I believe in order to practice medicine in Thailand, MDs at least do have to pass some kind of Thai language test. That already explains the pretty small numbers of non-Thai doctors practicing here now. But I'm not sure if that same requirement applies to nurses or nurse's aides.

I was talking about that subject sometime back with the American GP/MD at Mission Hospital in BKK who's one of the very few farang doctors anywhere around... There at least used to be a couple in BKK, one formerly from the UK and another. But one has pretty much retired...and the short list has been getting shorter.

My wife works as a nurse's aide in a private hospital in BKK, and most of the staff don't seem very happy about their working conditions or pay, as best as I can tell. But also, most (unlike my wife) only speak Thai and not any English or other languages. So I'm not sure how much prospect they have in other countries.

A lot of the private hospitals these days are making a big push for attracting (paying) foreign and medical tourism patients. So attracting (kind of English speaking) Filipina nurses aides in the future once the Asian rules change would seem a pretty likely result.

As for the Thai doctors, a lot of the good ones would certainly like to leave Thailand... but not for other Southeast Asian countries, but rather the U.S. and Europe...

Nurses are supposed to pass the board exam (in Thai) to gain licensing. However, new graduates can start work in hospitals before they have gained their licence. Have any of these bureaucrats thought through how this is actually going to work? Will they allow foreign nurses to work here, but only in private hospitals treating english speaking patients? Unless they can speak, read, and write Thai, and pass the board exam, I'm sure they could not work in public hospitals, regardless of how good their training is.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Well actually, the private hospitals probably are MORE looking for medical staff who can speak English and deal with foreign patients vs. Thai speakers, since there's no shortage of those. And if they can get English speakers on the cheap from places like PH or Cambodia, they'd probably jump at the chance.

BTW, FWIW, in my wife's outpatient department, there are 2-3 actual RN nurses, and the rest are nurse's aides, probably more than a dozen by comparison. It's the nurse's aides who handle the front desk and most of the assisting the doctor when the patient goes in for their visit.

On the broader scale, I certainly can envision the Thai hospitals wanting to latch onto low salaried English speaking medical staff from other SE Asian countries... But it's not at all clear to me that English speaking Thai doctors and nurses are inclined to want to leave Thailand for any of their SE Asian neighbor countries. But maybe there's some angle there that I'm not considering here late in the evening.

Edited April 23, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[hellodolly]

They are competing for philippina nurses? Good luck on that. The USA and Canada are offering some lucrative incentives such as bonuses and citizenship. Lemme think how Nurse Mary Taglog will react? A chance to work in Thailand with long hours, crappy pay and the hassles of visa runs or a chance at a better life in the USA/Canada with decent pay, regulated hours and working conditions, and an opportunity over time to sponsor a family as immigrants. I have a feeling, Thailand will attract the sediment in the international talent pool.

Unfortunately the US is down on the list for Philippino staff as they have made it harder for staff to obtain jobs. It takes up to 2 years to get approval for the US and only 1 year or less for other destinations. My daughter in law is half Philippino and she as several cousins that follow this path to a better life and it tends to run thru the middleeast to england as they are easier to obtain visas and approval for jobs. Yes and Canada is another destination as well

Don't know what the current situation is in Canada but 10 years ago they were loosing nurses to the States and facing a critical upcoming shortage with the baby boomers retiring. Some of the Nurses came back to Canada when they found out how high the cost of living was.

I digress Their is a lot of Trained Qualified Foreign Doctors in Canada making a living by driving Taxi or other means. It is not that the standards were to high but the Government with the help of the Canadian Medical association limited the number of Doctors from Foreign countries they could license to just a fraction of what they needed.

When the ASAN happens I doubt there will be a out flow of nurses and doctors as many of the other nations do not have the facilities for them. Some of the hospitals in Thailand are deplorable but they are better than nothing.

The Government should be looking at upgrading the facilities they have, As well as make sure the Doctors and Nurses get there wages on a regular schedule.

[noitom]

Thailand will be forced to "dehub" as the medical hub as Thai medical staff leave for better opportunity in other countries. "Dehubbing." That's where we are headed as quality deteriorates and patients go elsewhere. The problems: lack of quality/informed management, poor salary scale, corruption, and the problematical drug distribution system.

[mca]

"We want the hospital to become a one-stop healthcare service. Patients do not need to go anywhere else after receiving treatment and services from our medical workers," he said.

"In fact we have a plan to install ATM machines next to the beds of westerners so they don't even have to hobble down to the lobby to withdraw the 10000 baht we plan on charging them for removing a skin tag on their back no bigger than a gnat's cock"