Rural Doctor Inspires Local People In Phrae: Thailand

[webfact]

Rural doctor inspires local people in Phrae

THE NATION

NONG MUANG Khai Hospital director Dr Somsak Soroslikhit and his rice crop harvested from a field in the hospital compound. Under his initiative, the flourishing paddy field is cutting the hospital

PHRAE: -- A doctor who has made a big difference at a Phrae Hospital through the use of Dhamma and His Majesty's sufficiency-economy principle has been named the Outstanding Rural Doctor of Year 2011.

The honour went to Dr Somsak Soroslikhit, who heads the Nong Muang Khai Hospital.

"He has developed human resources and significantly improved the quality of the community hospital," Assoc Prof Dr Anupan Tantiwong said yesterday in his capacity as chair of the selection panel.

Launched by the Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital in 1973, the Outstanding Rural Doctor Award recognises exemplary doctors dedicated to the healthcare of people in rural areas. Graduates from all medical schools can be chosen for the award, if they have worked well and hard in the rural zones for at least five consecutive years.

Twenty-one candidates were shortlisted for the award this year and the Anupan-chaired panel found Somsak the most impressive.

"He has been an inspiration to local people," Anupan pointed out.

Apart from the honour, Somsak received a Bt180,000 cash reward. Of the amount, Bt100,000 comes from the Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Bt60,000 from Bangchak Petroleum, and Bt20,000 from Terumo (Thailand).

"I am proud [to receive the honour]," Somsak said.

He said when he was first appointed the director of Nong Muang Khai Hospital in 2007, it was operating in the red.

"Medical suppliers had stopped delivery of products because the hospital was heavily in debt. We had to borrow things from nearby medical facilities," Somsak recounted.

He said he later found many patients were coming to the hospital for symptoms associated with preventable causes such as smoking, alcoholic consumption, and chemicals in farmland.

"When people have access to free medical treatment, some pay less attention to taking care of their health," he said. "Medical staff were treating the patients based on their rights and entitlements, not humanitarian reasons anymore".

Somsak started creating change by applying the sufficiency-economy principle.

"We can reduce the use of painkillers and other unnecessary medicines," he said, "[This] alone can reduce the hospital's expenses by Bt700,000 per year".

He said he also encouraged the hospital's staff to save water and electricity.

"We created farms at the hospital's compound so as to reduce food expenses," he said. "Because we don't use chemicals in our farms, our crops are safe to eat."

Somsak also encouraged inpatients to pray and meditate three times a day.

Anupan said the praying and meditation techniques had spread from the hospital to local communities too. "They are tools to maintain one's health," he said.

-- The Nation 2012-08-02

[thequietman]

Great ideas. well done this man. hopefully many will take a leaf out of your tree and change things for the better.

[sdoc]

Its nice to see stories once and awhile showing positive people making a diffrence in this country far to often it's people slagging it off my self included good on ya Somsak