Hospitals hit by shortage of medics

A shortage of medical personnel, especially doctors, has led to staff being overworked at some hospitals, a top health official said yesterday.

Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, the Public Health Ministry’s permanent secretary, was responding to a news report that many new doctors were resigning soon after entering government service as they could not handle the heavy workload.

The report cited actress Noppasorn “Puimek” Veerayuthawilai, who graduated from the faculty of medicine at Rangsit University, as an example.

She said in an interview that after six years of hard study, she thought she would fulfil her dream of being a doctor, but after a short time on the job, she resigned from the government health service. The system forced her to accept a workload that she said was too heavy.

Dr Opas said the overwork problem is mainly due to a shortage of personnel faced by the health ministry, which wanted to recruit more staff but was unable to as the Civil Service Commission and the government decided on recruitment numbers.

He said a bigger budget allocation and higher staff ceiling would help solve the problem.

Dr Opas said he had instructed all departments to make sure their personnel were provided with sufficient welfare and not given too heavy a workload.

Regional hospitals in cities had a bigger problem with overwork than smaller hospitals in districts.

Knowing that the average income of medical personnel was below that offered by the private sector, the ministry has increased overtime rates, built housing for staff and provided them with improved welfare benefits.

Many government doctors have been promoted to C-9 level and nurses to C-8 and C-9 levels, he said.

On the “brain drain” issue, Dr Opas said about 2,000 doctors resigned each year on average. Only about 10% did so to pursue further studies.

Most doctors who entered the public health system remain in the service, he said.

Dr Opas thanked the government for approving 45,000 new positions for medical personnel to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, but he said that more was still needed.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said that Deputy Prime Minister and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul informed the cabinet of the problem yesterday.

Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, said that the problem has existed for a long time and not only includes doctors but a broad range of medical professionals.

There are 60,000 doctors in the system, but only 24,649 work with the ministry, with the rest working in privately owned hospitals.

The ratio of doctors to patients is 1:2,000, far from the global standard of 3:1,000. On average, around 3,000 medical students graduate each year.