Health Ministry mulling 5-year strategic plan to boost Thailand as international health hub

BANGKOK, 3 August 2012 (NNT) – The Public Health Ministry has mulled a 5-year strategic plan to strengthen Thailand’s ambition to become an international health hub.

Health Minister Wittaya Buranasiri said that the Ministry has just completed the 2012-2016 strategic plan to turn Thailand in to an international health center.

Under this plan, the Department of Health Service Support has been assigned to formulate the direction of work for all state health service centers across the country.

Mr. Wittaya stated that the strategic plan is also aimed at helping boost the economy while elevating the quality of healthcare services in all areas to meet the WHO Guidelines on Good Agricultural and Collection Practices (GACP).

The Public Health Ministry has also decided to extend the period of stay by foreigners, who traveled to Thailand to receive medical treatment, from 30 days to 90 days without visa needed. Eligible visitors will also be allowed to make multiple trips to the country for the maximum period of stay of 1 year.

The Public Health Minister said that 5 countries initially eligible for the extended stay policy include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. He said the Cabinet has given its approval to this policy, which will be put to use at the end of this year.

In addition, Mr. Wittaya said that the Ministry is determined to further develop clinics and hospitals in the country to meet international standards set by the Joint Commission International on Accreditation (JCIA), with a plan to open a One-Stop service Center for foreign patients.

-- NNT 2012-08-03

Hub hub hub

The hubs keep coming. If this hub gets going, forget about getting reasably priced health care in Thailand. Farangs already pay too much compared to locals.

A praiseworthy initiative, but perhaps before becoming another hub, the Health Ministry should give serious consideration to sorting out the multitude of issues facing the domestic health service and concentrate on giving Thai people a high standard of health care before allocating valuable and scarce resources to foreigners. The standard of health care in some areas is dire, and noticeably, because the Thai's will not allow foreign Doctors to work here (so they save all the money for themselves), without an almost impossible series of examinations which Thai Doctors themselves would struggle to pass, the Thai Doctors do not receive the benefits of working with colleagues from a multi national environment, and subsequently their standards are much much lower than in other countries.

mmm ...get the basics right first

Hubtastic hub pickers!

This weeks top ten That Hubs!!!!!!!!!!

They are mulling, completing , boosting, assigning, aiming, and they are extending. Boy oh boy! These Thais!! They're something else. On top of everything. Hubbing everything. A medical hub, why couldn't anyone else think of that? Wow, these Thais are amazing. We should all emulate them in everything that they do.

What is it with the hub thing?

90-day entry without a visa, that could help tourists avoid the usual paperwork ... I think I feel a cold coming-on !

Hub of tourists who feel possibly slightly-unwell ?

Edited August 4, 201213 yr by Ricardo

They should make it a 100 Year Strategic Plan..It will take them that long to make a decision. With all the debates on every single issue that

comes up, they may need 200 years.

A large percentage cannot even speak English, on the other hand they do know about money, and maybe thats all they need to know.

If you pay attention to Thai conversations, every other word out of their mouths is the word BAHT.

quote 'The Public Health Minister said that...'

Is he a Thai public health minister or some other coutries' public health minister?

quote 'Mr. Wittaya said that the Ministry is determined to further develop clinics and hospitals in the country ..... with a plan to open a One-Stop service Center for foreign patients.'

This government should be looking into caring its own people, not forigners. Thai people, particularly in the country, have a limited access to public health care. They have to wait from 5 AM till late morning before they can see doctors in the public hospitals. If you don't want to wait that long, pay up and you will get a special clinic which runs in the afternoon, in the same hospital, from the same doctors or even more experienced physicians. The public health systems are a joke, like everything else in this country.

Thai doctors are shielded from criticism in the same way as other 'executive' professionals. (I have 1st hand experience of this). Perhaps it fits in with elements of Thai Political life, where mistakes in the past aren't even acknowledged, let alone learnt from.

Until the health system in Thailand is open and prepared to accept mistakes as a natural part of business, perhaps now isn't the time for non-Thais to be heading towards this Hub.

International Health Hub... And yet the Thai police are extorting money/arresting people outside needle exchanges.

Hubba of Bubba?

hubbabubba.mp3

Edited August 4, 201213 yr by hhiser

A praiseworthy initiative, but perhaps before becoming another hub, the Health Ministry should give serious consideration to sorting out the multitude of issues facing the domestic health service and concentrate on giving Thai people a high standard of health care before allocating valuable and scarce resources to foreigners. The standard of health care in some areas is dire, and noticeably, because the Thai's will not allow foreign Doctors to work here (so they save all the money for themselves), without an almost impossible series of examinations which Thai Doctors themselves would struggle to pass, the Thai Doctors do not receive the benefits of working with colleagues from a multi national environment, and subsequently their standards are much much lower than in other countries.

Not precisely correct. The thai exams are fairly straightforward, actually not as unnecessarily esoteric as the canadien, british, usa exams are. There is no usmle cs thai equivalent either, thus making it less painful and less expensive. The thai graduates do in fact sit for the same series of exams as offered to no thai grads. The first time pass rate for top university students is pretty decent. Some of the private universities have a lower pass rate. Even if the pass rate is 50%, it is likely the student will pass after 2 attempts.

There is protectionism in medicine in virtually all countries. Actually, many would argue it is more difficult for a canadian citizen international medical graduate to work as a doctor in canada than in thailand.

Thailand wins Gold in the Hubathon. That's 3 hub announcements in about 1 week.