Most senators have voiced concern about and urged a revision of the plan to transfer more than 9,787 tambon health centres from the Ministry of Public Health to the Interior Ministry's tambon administrative organisations (TAO).
They advocated focusing instead on how ready each centre is, as well taking into account the opinions of local residents and other parties, said an informed source.
The transfer plan was debated at yesterday's Senate committee meeting on local administrative affairs. They proposed setting up a central committee to study any negative impact of the transferred healthcare services, said the source.
About 70 health centres have been transferred this year under the government's decentralisation policy, which affects where they get their budget.
Some senators said the revolving nature of executive appointments at the local bodies dispensing their budget could be detrimental to a consistent health policy.