Healthcare activists oppose new ‘superboard’
HEALTHCARE activists have expressed opposition to the bill establishing the National Health Policy Board, which is part of the country’s upcoming health care reform.
The People Health Systems Movement (PHSM) yesterday said the bill damages the checks-and-balances principle and raises concerns that it might allow the Public Health Ministry to centralise power concerning healthcare management.
“The bill, for example, will put just three representatives of the people’s sector on the 44-member board,” the movement’s prominent member Apiwat Kwangkaew said yesterday as he lodged a petition addressed to Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya through the government’s complaint-receiving centre.
Chatchai oversees the Public Health Ministry.
Apiwat said that with the people’s sector under-represented on the board, it would not be possible to uphold checks and balances.
He referred to the National Health Policy Board as the “superboard”.
Chaired by the prime minister, the board will have the power to formulate directions and policies for the country’s health care sector.
It will also have the power to integrate health care work, budgets, laws and regulation and will have the authority to issue health care-related regulations, if the current bill is approved.
Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, of the PHSM, yesterday said that the national strategy for health care reform, which was already promulgated in the Royal Gazette, would pave the way for the centralisation of power.
The national health care reform committee’s chairman, Dr Seree Tuchinda, an adviser to the public health minister, believed the movement might have misunderstood the strategy.
“I don’t think the National Health Policy Board is a superboard. It’s not that big,” Seree said. “It is not going to centralise power for the Public Health Ministry. The board, when established, will have representatives from all sectors.”
He said the bill would set up health care zones to support decentralisation and the zones would be introduced gradually.
“We will begin with some zones first. Only after results are assessed and positive results confirmed, will we expand them further,” Seree said.
He believed the National Health Policy Board would be established within two years.