Rural doctors to meet govt today on P4P, healthcare

The group threatened to organise a massive protest at Yingluck’s residence on June 20 if their demands to remove Pradith were not met in today’s negotiations at Government House.
The network asked Yingluck to assign Pradith’s deputy Chonnan Srikaew, whom they believed to be an open-minded person, to be acting public health minister instead of a Cabinet reshuffle.
“We won’t talk with Pradith any more because we don’t trust him,” Rural Doctors Society committee member Dr Supat Hasuwankit told yesterday’s press conference.
Society president Dr Kriangsak Watcharanukulkiat said they believed all problems would end with Pradith’s removal because “Pradith is the only trouble for the health system”.
In today’s negotiation to be chaired by PM’s Office Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal and PM’s secretary-general Suranan Vejjajiva, it was expected that a memorandum of understanding between the Public Health Ministry and the network to resolve problems in the healthcare system would result.
The ministry’s implementation of a new salary system to pay additional allowances for medical workers based on the “pay for performance” (P4P) principle will be the hottest issue at the table.
The network wants the government to pay the additional allowance based on the location and the number of years worked, instead of using P4P, which would cut their allowances and require doctors to spend time to collect points to receive extra pay.
The network also asked the ministry to set up an independent team to study the procedure used by the executive board of the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) in firing former head Dr Witit Artavatkun. They claimed the investigation was not fair and had not followed good-governance principles.
They said they would also ask prominent health advocate Dr Banlu Siripanich to probe suspected irregularities in the Public Health Ministry’s medical procurements under the Thai Khem Khaeng scheme, which was implemented during former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s administration.
The society urged the government to stop the co-payment scheme forcing people to pay Bt30 to receive services under the universal healthcare scheme.
They also objected to Pradith’s intervention in the management of the National Health Security Office’s executive board and the GPO’s executive board. They asked the government to stop abrogating the power of the NHSO to the Public Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Pradith insisted he should not be removed from his position because he did not do anything wrong and had followed good-governance principles to reform the health system. He strongly denied allegations he tried to privatise the GPO and intervene in the management of both health agencies.
In a related development, Pradith will launch another probe to investigate alleged irregularities in the GPO’s spending on corporate-social-responsibility projects and the connection between the GPO and a private drug maker.