Medics hope for welfare status boost

Medics hope for welfare status boost

Ministry considers new benefits

The Public Health Ministry is considering giving some medical personnel welfare benefits similar to those of the bureaucratic system in a fresh move to solve a shortfall in permanent civil servant positions for seven groups.

The plan, which intends to give better care to medical personnel with "civil servant employee status", will be used in tandem with a traditional approach to allot permanent civil servant vacancies to the medical staff, said permanent secretary for public health Sopon Mekthon after meeting with representatives from the groups.

The groups, covering physical therapists, medical technicians, radiologists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, cardiothoracic experts and speech language experts, gathered at the ministry on Friday to renew their demand for vacancies in the bureaucracy.

However, Dr Sopon admitted the ministry can this year allot only 308 positions for the personnel out of 3,000 on a waiting list. He told his deputy, Somsak Akkhasin, to work on the new employment plan.

Dr Somsak said yesterday he divides his work into two parts. His team is compiling benefit and welfare proposals under the new employment system and is preparing to meet representatives from the seven groups again to discuss the future workforce of the Public Health Ministry.

The aim is to "plug any loopholes" in the current system in which medical personnel are hired as civil servant employees, he said. This can be done by means of giving them new work benefits.

Among the welfare proposals are the establishment of a new fund to finance pensions for the employees and a right for them to ask for study leave.

The ministry will also no longer require them to renew their work contracts every four years, Dr Somsak said.

Their annual salary increase should be between 1.2% and 1.4%, he estimated.

All employees will have rights to welfare under the Social Security Fund. They and their parents will be also granted rights to treatment at hospitals, according to Dr Somsak.

He admitted it is difficult to see the allotment of new permanent civil servants because the government has no policy to increase the number of state officials. As a result, each allotment will be done only when someone retires from their job.

In terms of budget, any new allotment for one official will cost the government 25 million baht as she or he will be given welfare all their lives.

This has caused the government to carefully consider the request to increase the number of civil servants, not just in the Public Health Ministry but across the public sector, Dr Somsak said.

There is still good news, however. Dr Somsak expected more officials, who were mostly born in the baby boom generation, will retire in the next five years, leaving more vacancies for younger medical staff.

The ministry is drafting a long-term plan to determine the appropriate proportion of its civil servants and employees. In the group of seven medical fields, the number of civil servants should be 75%, but whether new vacancies in the bureaucracy will be allotted will depend on the government, Dr Sopon said.

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