Pradit opens P4p study to doctors

Public Health Minister Pradit Sinthawanarong set up a special committee yesterday to study the implementation of the controversial medical-allowance plan, and permitted Rural Doctors Society representatives to attend its meetings.
The committee will comprise representatives from regional hospitals, general hospitals and rural hospitals, along with other health professionals.
Pradit said he had asked Comptroller General’s Department representatives to join this panel to study financial criteria to pay additional allowances – based on the pay for performance (P4P) principle – for medical workers including doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses.
“The new criteria would cover other health professionals,” he added.
The move comes after the Public Health Ministry and the Network for Justice in the Health System, including the Rural Doctors Society, agreed to end their long-standing conflict by agreeing to go ahead with an adjusted P4P scheme, which would be implemented fully by October 1.
Also, the Rural Doctors Society decided to stop its campaign to oust Pradit from his top post and to leave his future to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The committee would be chaired by the Fiscal Policy Research Insti-tution’s Kanit Saengsuphan, chairman of the National Health Securi-ty Office’s financial subcommittee.
According to Pradit, the new method of paying the additional allowance would be based on working conditions in each hospital and among health professionals.

ALLOWANCES TO BE ADJUSTED
For example, allowances for regional hospitals and general hospitals would be based on the outcome of medical treatments provided to patients. The allowance for rural hospitals would depend on the outcome of health promotion and prevention programmes.
The committee would also study the compensation payment method for hospitals and medical workers whose salaries were affected by the P4P scheme implementation.
Following the Network for Justice in the Health System’s demand to join the panel, Pradit said he welcomed the network representatives, but said they would only be allowed to sit in on the meeting and listen to the discussion. They would not be able to express any opinions.
The Thailand Regional and General Hospital Society has issued a statement supporting Pradit’s implementation of the P4P scheme. It called the Rural Doctors Society and the Network of Justice in the Health System’s plan to protest in front of the PM’s house an inappropriate and troublemaking action.
Pradit said he wouldn’t be concerned if the society and its allies changed their minds and demonstrated in front of his house instead of Yingluck’s.
“I’ve followed their demands. I don’t know what to do if they [remain] unhappy with my responses. Or maybe, they just don’t like my face,” he said.
Meanwhile, the society’s president, Dr Kriangsak Watcharanu-kulkiat, said he hadn’t received an official invitation to meet up with the permanent secretary for public health, Dr Narong Sahamethapat and help set up the panel.
He said he would not help set up the committee, because the ministry hadn’t been tasked by the government to do so. He said PM’s Secretary-General Suranand Vejjajiva and Kanit must establish the committee. The hospital society would organise a meeting on June 20 to evaluate their movements and would likely organise another protest if their demands weren’t met.