Bt30 scheme is back but not everybody is happy

According to the Public Health Ministry, the fee col?lection must take effect from September 1.
“Many hospitals look set not to collect the Bt30 fee from patients,” said Dr Arak Wongworachart, director of Sichon Hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat. “They will not directly argue with the ministry but they will simply ignore the new rule.”
A former president of the Rural Doctors Society, Arak spoke yesterday after attending a meeting called by the ministry on implementation of the Bt30 scheme.
The administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has decided to relaunch the Bt30 co-payment instituted under Thaksin Shinawatra’s govern?ment, scrapping a free universal healthcare plan that had been implemented after Thaksin’s ousting.
“The fee collection will raise the public’s expectations of what they will get from the services and increase work procedures and expenses because hospital staff will have to prepare the payment documents,” Arak said.
The director of a hospital in the South complained that the government tried to explain to the public that the co-payment would come with better services, such as making services available during lunch breaks.
“But that’s something some hospitals won’t be able to provide in practice,” the hospital director said on condition of anonymity.
Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Paijit Warachit said most medical facilities under his supervision were equipped to increase the services for the implementation of Bt30-per-visit fee collection. He said only six hospitals at the tambon or district levels were unable to do because they were operating with just one doctor.
“But we are going to reallocate resources,” he said.
Paijit also said exemption from the Bt30 co-pay?ment was possible, but approval must be granted on a case-by-case basis.
Arak said: “Asking whether the patients will pay may cause conflicts. Many hospitals believe they had better put up donation boxes. Donation amounts can be much higher.”
Meanwhile, about 100 Lamphun residents gathered in front of the provincial hall to protest against the Bt30 plan.
“It’s the fundamental right of people to receive health services from the government,” Pirun Jantham said yesterday as the coordinator of a network of Lamphun residents who have used the government’s free universal healthcare scheme.
He said a large number of people in other Northern provinces, including Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, were also unhappy about the Bt30 fee.