Health Dept sounds alarm on falling birth rate

Ageing society will cause severe shortage of workers

PHETCHABUN: Thailand will face a labour shortage over the next 60 years with elderly people outnumbering those of working age if the declining birth rate remains unchecked, according to Heath Department director-general Atchara Nithiapinyasakul.

Speaking at a seminar in Phetchabun, Dr Atchara said more than 500,000 people died in 2023 while only 480,000 babies were born. It was the first time Thailand had recorded more deaths than births in a year.

This means that in the next six decades, 14 million working-age people will have to take care of 18 million senior citizens.

“Try to imagine it, that we board a plane but there are no pilots or flight attendants due to a labour shortage. And if hospitals lack doctors and nurses, who’s going to take care of the patients, most of whom are old?” she said.

“If the country lacks a working population, who will pay taxes? The Public Health Ministry must come up with a solution while also making this figure known to the public, so people can decide whether they want to have children or not.”

Dr Atchara cited the situation in Singapore and in Sweden.

“Singapore has to import labour from other countries because the government’s reproduction campaign was not attractive enough to persuade people to have more children.

“The Swedish government, meanwhile, uses incentives to encourage its people to get pregnant including paid maternal leave and child allowances. This effort has evidently increased the birth rate in Sweden over past decade.”

In Thailand, according to Dr Atchara, financial issues and a lack of government support were the main factors discouraging Thais from having children.

She suggested the ministry improve the welfare system and help couples who have fertility difficulties.

The Surrogacy Act should also be revised to allow same-sex couples to be parents through surrogacy, she said.

“This is not just a matter of fertility, but also of national security,” she said. The issues had been submitted to cabinet for discussion. Many state hospitals were were setting up fertility clinics, she said.

Hospitals in Phetchabun were pioneers in offering intrauterine insemination (IUI), the clinical injection of prepared sperm into a uterus.

As for invitro fertilisation (IVF), Maharat Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima province and Hat Yai Hospital in Songkhla province were the only state-run hospitals offering this treatment, she said.