New governor `must act' on health reform

Somsak

Paibul

Supattra

Experts: Promises are no longer enough

Kunsiri Olarikkachat

At a forum on the health and safety issues facing Bangkok, experts agreed that the challenge awaiting the new Bangkok governor is not whether he or she can do more to keep city residents in good health, but whether he or she can muster the will to push new measures through.

``Go out and challenge the government and become the first Bangkok governor ever to restructure Bangkok's health insurance system.

``The chance is there but the question is: Does the new governor have the guts to do it?'' said Somsak Chunharas, secretary-general of the National Health Foundation.

He listed the four major health and safety problems in Bangkok as inadequate health services, traffic accidents, unhealthy students and disease control.

Dr Somsak said that although adequate money and other resources were available to the governor to tackle these problems, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration kept doing too little, too late, to put them to good use.

``Bangkok people have the right to hope for a better life and to blame their governor if that does not happen,'' he said.

Dr Somsak said every Bangkok governor seemed to hold on to the belief that the job of providing medical and other health-related services to the people belonged to the government, not the local administration organisation.

``So he may think: why bite off more than you can chew?'' he said.

BMA health services, which comprise four hospitals, each with a minimum of 200 beds, and more than 60 health centres, each caring for 50,000 people, do not adequately meet the medical demands of the city and are marred by inefficient management, he said.

Dr Somsak challenged the new governor, to be elected on Aug 29, to see that all city health centres are open round the clock or provide beds for sick people to stay overnight for observation in emergency situations.

This measure would help alleviate the burden of the already-crowded state hospitals, he said.



The revenues raised by the Public Health Ministry through the 30-baht medical scheme should be used to improve the city's health services, Dr Somsak said, adding that the health-care money should be managed by hospitals or clinics operated by local administration bodies.

Dr Somsak was joined by Paibul Suriyawongpaisal, head of Ramathibodi Hospital's Community Medicine Centre, and Supattra Srivanichakorn, director of the Health Care Reform Project, at a forum on health and safety in Bangkok held by the Bangkok Post and its media allies for the ``Taking Bangkok 2004'' coverage of the Bangkok governor election.

The three experts agreed the governor should also negotiate with the government for greater authority to reduce road accidents by providing more school buses, adjusting the public transportation system, and by increasing road surface area, so residents could park their cars at home, which would help reduce air and noise pollution, save energy and increase road safety.

Dr Somsak said studies found 24% of parents in Bangkok wanted their children to take school buses but that neither the BMA nor the schools themselves had implemented a standardised system that could guarantee convenience and safety.

Dr Paibul said money was not a problem because Bangkok was Thailand's wealthiest city.

``The new governor has the opportunity to transform Bangkok into a real `city of angels','' he said.

Inside schools, student obesity was becoming a big health concern.

Dr Somsak said BMA should ban the sales of unhealthy food and drinks at schools and make sure schools provide their students a clean and green environment, playgrounds and more hours for physical education.

BMA should also let schools know which health centres they had to contact when students had health problems or give children regular medical checks, he said.

Dr Supattra said health promotion campaigns in schools were carried out mainly by private businesses while BMA was slow to take action as it thought it could not compete with the private sector in this area.

Dr Somsak said he also wanted to see the governor retake control of disease control operations.