NHSO, ThaiHealth, NSC and the Law Society have joined hands to bypass the system to have medical care for people with no nationality. They revealed that there was a crisis on the border, Tak province, in 2052, with more than 10,000 malaria patients, and the highest rate of typhoid fever and anthracic fever, in the country. Ethnic groups proposed setting up a committee to attract provincial people to join in finding ways and means to find out the causes of problems in the province.

On the 24th of March, at Richman Hotel, NHSO, ThaiHealth, NSC and the Law Society, together with hospital networks, organized a seminar on “ Ways to assert basic human rights of people with problems “.

Mr. Surapong Kongchantuk, a representative from the Law Society, said that the Cabinet’s approval of setting up a budget for medical care of 475,409 people living on the border, showed that there has been progress in human right movement by caring for people of all ethnic groups. Section 51 of the Constitution specifies clearly that individuals have equal right to suitable standard public health services, regardless of being Thai national or not. However only one in three of people living on the border could receive medical treatments, the remaining 2 in 3 was still in hospital. Thus, it has not been an overall coverage, but it has been an improvement in caring for people living on the border. It is up to the fund management in the following year to see that these people, who also have been paying taxes every year to the government, should receive medical cares.

Dr. Worawit Tantiwattanasup, who is Director of Umphang Hospital, Tak province and coordinator of border-hospital-network, said that the cabinet’s resolution would run into difficulty if health insurance was granted to people living on the border of Thailand. Since the Act specifies that only Thai nationals would be entitled to health insurance, a budget has been set up within the Ministry of Public Health for direct and tangible assistance for the time being. However, for understanding each province’s problems, the Ministry of Public Health must have representatives from all the provinces. This approach should enable the Ministry to allocate budget to each province to address its own specific needs, and in future the Ministry should not have to be responsible for each province’s budget. It was necessary to prove, speedily, nationalities of 4.700000 people for access to the health insurance system. However, on 1st. of April, 2009, when people could access the healthcare system, some service centers still kept the collected cash. It might be better to ask ethic claimers to show their identification cards, without collecting cash, so that they could use the services like other Thai people.

Dr. Worawit said that with regards to the health of stateless people in border provinces, the information of 2009 from the Bureau of Epidemiology, Department of Communicable Disease Control, showed that Tak province had the highest ratio of malaria in Thailand. There were 10,057 patients, or a ratio of 1,881 patients per 10, 0000 population, about 40/% of all the malaria patients in the country. Mae Hongson and Ranong provinces had a ratio of 654 and 516 per 10, 0000 people, respectively. Treatment involved injecting antibiotics intravenously to combat the disease. It was also found that the country had the highest rate of typhoid. Therefore, if there were separate treatments, as before, the disease could not be prevented. Treatments must, therefore, be accessible to all.

Mr. Sorawit, Sae Kor, agent of Ethnic Networking Group of Thailand, said that so far there were problems with health service accessibility. These problems were, 1) getting prior permissions from Amphurs, 2) incompatible language in communication and, 3) choice of treatment or refusal for treatment, resulting in many people not going to the health service centers. The Cabinet’s resolution therefore widened accessibility to health services for all the border ethnic groups. Mr. Sorawit himself would like to recommend the Ministry of Public Health to have a clear management format, perhaps a committee with public participation. This would be like the National Health Service Organization (NHSO) which has involved participation from different networks with understanding of their local people’s problems and needs. Healthcare services should be convenient to all, including having interpreters in district hospitals to solve communication problems.

Source: ThaiHealth