Health minister and his top man must go, RDS says
THE RURAL Doctors Society presented proposals yesterday for reforming the Public Health Ministry and called for caretaker minister Pradit Sinthawanarong and permanent secretary Narong Sahamethapat to step down.
Dr Arak Wongworachart, director of Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Sichol Hospital and a representative of the RDS, said the group wants a neutral person to be caretaker because the two men no longer had the legitimacy to carry out ministry policies after allegedly intervening in the public health system and ruining it.
He said a neutral person should take the lead in overhauling the health and political systems.
The government should enhance service and work efficiency, which would boost the confidence of service users; prevent political intervention in state officials’ work; and overhaul independent organisations such as state-owned enterprises, including the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, to ensure people participation.
The Education Ministry’s teaching methods should also be revamped to reduce rote learning and studying for exams. And the National Police decentralised to local areas.
As for the controversial pay-for-performance-based salary system for health personnel, the doctors would no longer carp about it because they believe this issue stemmed from the two men, Pradit and Narong, so they just wanted the pair to resign.
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