The Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI) is satisfied with the first-year implementation of the Extra Plus project, which allows members of the gold card universal healthcare scheme to receive medicine at pharmacies near their home for free.
Dr Supakit Sirilak, director of HSRI, said the idea was based on an attempt to bring the public health care system closer to people.
Those who have mild symptoms such as fever, sore throat, diarrhoea, rashes or a minor injury do not have to go to a hospital just to get medicine. They can now get their meds at drug stores near their home.
This could help reduce the number of patients at hospitals as well as cut the cost of travel and time waiting to see a doctor, he said.
Since the programme was introduced in October last year, about 1,500 pharmacies — mostly in big cities like Bangkok — have joined the project. About 200,000 people have access to the service and have used it an average of two times per person during the past 12 months.
HSRI urges more drug stores to join the project as the Public Health Ministry has set a target for 5,000 to serve 48 million gold card holders nationwide. The target ratio will be one pharmacy per 10,000 patients. Drug store owners who want to join must have an international standard of Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP).
Patients can find a list of pharmacies by contacting the National Health Security Office (NHSO) through its call centre at 1330, via www.nhso.go.th or by looking for the logo of the NHSO.
“People who get medicines from drug stores can be assured they will receive high-quality service,” he said.