PUBLISHED : 10 Aug 2023 at 04:00
The Praboromarajchanok Institute (PI), under the Ministry of Public Health, is planning to establish a faculty of medicine to address a national shortage of doctors and nurses.
Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul yesterday said after meeting the ministry’s executive officials that the PI has proposed its policy to boost medical personnel numbers.
The policy will also aim to provide comprehensive health care services in villages and tambon promotion hospitals to mitigate patient congestion at bigger hospitals.
Doctors and nurses will also help train health volunteers as practical nurses in each tambon and local area. The PI’s faculty of medicine will help develop other public health personnel in the future, Mr Anutin said.
Meanwhile, Dr Soranit Siltharm, subcommittee chairman with the Consortium of Thai Medical Schools (CTMS), said the 18 institutes under the CTMS are ready for an intake of a total of 2,380 new students in medicine, dental surgery, veterinary medicine and pharmacy programmes next year.
Dr Soranit said the criteria for applicants remains the same but the CTMS has allowed students who graduated from other fields outside science to enrol in the doctor of dental surgery programme.
The exam registration for CTMS’ Thailand Professional Aptitude Test 1 will open from Sept 1-20 for an 800 baht fee.
The exam will take place on Dec 16.
Dr Soranit said the doctor shortage stems from a distribution problem, as most doctors are in the city.
He said recruiting more doctors is not a solution as the number of students accepted into medical programmes is calculated with the proportion of the population in mind.