PUBLISHED : 1 Sep 2023 at 04:00
The Public Health Ministry is aiming to set up a dental health department to promote oral healthcare, according to the government.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, permanent secretary for public health, told the press yesterday that the cabinet has acknowledged the Senate Public Health Committee’s proposal to establish the new department. However, the plan must still be discussed with the incoming public health minister, he said.
Dr Opas said its establishment will take years, but the Public Health Ministry will push the service to the public as the department is being set up.
The ministry also plans to open one dental hospital in each of the country’s 77 provinces to enable core access to oral healthcare, especially for those living upcountry, he said.
When asked if the cabinet has approved the founding of a medical school at the Praboromarajchanok Institute, a public higher education institute for public health workers under the ministry, Dr Opas said the school will recruit medical students next year so more doctors can be deployed in rural areas.
Previously, the institute offered two programmes: nursing and public health and health sciences, in 39 colleges across the country. This year, the institute launched a new medical degree to address a shortage of health workers in Thailand.
Also, Nimit Tianudom, director of the Aids Access Foundation and a board member of the National Health Security Office (NHSO), said in an interview that he is not impressed by Pheu Thai’s public health flowchart, aimed at improving the nation’s universal healthcare scheme, also known as the gold card.
He said the chart mentions a remodelling of the queuing system and the use of ID cards for all health affairs, all of which the NHSO has already worked on.
“The management of human resources and the improvement of the healthcare database [should be] the two main goals [for Pheu Thai],” he said. “The next public health minister should spend his term working on the entire public health system, not just the gold card scheme.”