The Public Health Ministry is preparing to set up a new structure for the public health system by October that is expected to improve the efficacy of healthcare services.
"We have been studying reforming the country's public health system and structure for more than two years as we found that the existing system is not flexible in providing healthcare services for people," Dr Narong Sahamethapat, permanent secretary of the ministry, said yesterday.
Under the plan, Public Health Minister Pradith Sinthawanarong said the new agency called the National Health Authority (NHA) will play a key role in policymaking for four areas - health services, health promotion, disease prevention and control, and consumer protection.
The agency will also oversee policy and technology evaluation, medical service standards, surveillance and responses to emergencies such as pandemics, international cooperation for public health development, financial systems and personnel.
To make the healthcare system more effective, some agencies would be restructured and management re-oriented to focus on a common goal.
The NHSO, for example, should only be a purchaser of healthcare services from the ministry but in the past it has tried to manage the financial system of healthcare providers, which is not its responsibility under the law.
"We just want to adjust all state health-related agencies to head down the right track. They must do their own job that was designated by the law," he said.
The ministry does not intend to bring all five independent health agencies under its wing. It just wants the agencies to issue coordinated policies in a bid to improve healthcare delivery.
But in the eyes of prominent health advocates like Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, secretary-general of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation, the reform process would make the country's healthcare system more effective.
It was a good idea to set up a national authority to ensure that each state health agency was proceeding in the right direction, but the authority should not interfere in the decisions or operations of each agency, he said.
A ministry source said he was not sure that this health reform plan will really improve the public health system as the government has sent its own man to supervise health-related agencies such as the National Health Security Office, Health System Research Institute and Emergency Medical Institute.
Source: The Nation March 25, 2013
