A 10-year strategic plan aimed at increasing the number of healthcare workers will be submitted to the cabinet on Tuesday, Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin said on Sunday.
He said the plan follows the cabinet’s July 9 approval of the Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) proposal to address the shortage of these professionals in the public healthcare sector.
Mr Somsak said the ministry aims to increase the number of graduate doctors, nurses, pharmacists, Thai traditional medicine practitioners and public health workers by 31,074, 124,558, 9,800, 18,169 and 36,993, respectively, over the next 10 years.
"The healthcare worker shortage needs to be dealt with as soon as possible to ensure the universal healthcare scheme has a sufficient number of healthcare workers, especially now the government wants to turn Thailand into a wellness and medical hub.
Nurse shortage
"Currently, Thailand has 71,616 doctors and 209,187 nurses, so, in addition to recruitment alone, three strategies have been designed to boost efforts to raise the number of nurses to meet the target," he said.
The number of new nurses fresh out of college needs to be raised to work alongside an additional 10,000 nursing assistants who have completed a one-year training programme in the first three years, he said.
And better work benefits will be offered to keep experienced nurses in the public healthcare system.
He said that at the same time, 375 retired teaching nurses will return to work at nurse-training institutions.
According to the minister, skilled staff are vital to the sector and their numbers will be raised to appropriate levels over the coming decade.