Pledge to increase medical staff to combat shortfall

The Ministry of Public Health and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) agreed on various measures to address the ongoing issue of personnel shortage while reducing the number of doctors and nurses leaving the state sector to join private hospitals, the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) reports.

According to Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Public Health, the plan is to create 35,000 additional positions for doctors and 140,000 new positions for nurses within the next three years.

Medical schools will meanwhile increase the number of admissions for medical students each year, allowing for more graduates in the future, said Dr Taweesin.

The ministry and the CSC also agreed that some regulations will be reviewed for specialists as part of efforts to prevent them from leaving the state sector.

Resignations at state hospitals, especially among interns, have risen in recent years, increasingly affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of public hospitals that provide public health services.

Due to personnel shortages, doctors have had to work longer hours in order to accommodate an increasing number of patients, resulting in overwork for the remaining medical staff at public hospitals.