ObjectiveTo investigate the magnitude and characteristics of medical tourism in Thailand and the impact of such tourism on the Thai health system and economy.MethodsIn 2010, we checked the records of all visits to five private hospitals that are estimated to cover 63% of all foreign patients. We reviewed hospital records of foreign patients and obtained data on their countries of origin, diagnoses and interventions. We surveyed 293 medical tourists to collect demographic characteristics and information on their expenditure and travelling companions. To help understand the impact of medical tourism on the Thai health system, we also interviewed 15 hospital executives and 28 service providers from the private hospitals.FindingsWe obtained 911 913 records of hospital visits, of which 324 906 came from 104 830 medical tourists. We estimated that there were 167 000 medical tourists in Thailand in 2010. Of the medical tourists who attended our study hospitals, 67 987 (64.8%) came from the eastern Mediterranean region or Asia and 109 509 (34%) of them were treated for simple and uncomplicated conditions – i.e. general check-ups and medical consultations. The mean self-reported non-medical expenditure was 2750 United States dollars. According to the hospital staff interviewed, medical tourism in 2010 brought benefits to – and apparently had no negative impacts on – the Thai health system and economy.ConclusionWe estimate that the total number of medical tourists visiting Thailand is about 10% of previous national government estimates of 1.2 million. Such tourists appear to bring economic benefits to Thailand and to have negligible effects on the health system.

BackgroundGeographical maldistribution has been a critical concern of health workforce planning in Thailand for years. This study aimed to assess the equity of health workforce distribution in public hospitals affiliated to the Office of Permanent Secretary (OPS) of the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) through the application of “concentration index” (CI).MethodsA cross sectional quantitative design was employed. The dataset comprised 1) health workforce data from the OPS, MOPH in 2016, 2) regional and provincial-level economic data from the National Economic and Social Development Board in 2015, and 3) population data from the Ministry of Interior in 2015. Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank correlation, and CI analysis were performed.ResultsThailand had 2.04 health professionals working in public facilities per 1,000 population. Spearman’s correlation found positive relationship in all health professionals. Yet, statistical significance was not found in most health professionals but doctors (P<0.001). Positive correlation was observed in all health cadres at regional and provincial hospitals (rs=0.348, P=0.002). In the CI analysis, the distribution of health professionals across provincial income was relatively equitable in all cadres. Significant CIs were found in doctor density (CI =0.055, P=0.001), all professionals density at district hospitals (CI =–0.049, P=0.012), and all professionals density at provincial and regional hospitals (CI =0.078, P=0.003).ConclusionThe positive CIs implied that the distribution of all health professionals, especially doctors, at provincial and regional hospitals slightly favored the richer provinces. In contrast, the distribution at district hospitals was slightly more concentrated in less well-off provinces. From a macro-view, the distribution of all health professionals in Thailand was relatively equitable across provincial economic status. This might be due to the extensive health infrastructure development and rural retention policies over the past four decades.

BackgroundTravel for medical treatment is an aspect of globalization and health that is comparatively less understood. Little is known about volume, characteristic and motivation of medical tourists, limiting understanding of effects on health systems and patients. Thailand is amongst a handful of countries that have positioned themselves as medical tourism destination. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment.MethodsAs part of a wider medical tourism study, authors gained access to over 4000 patient records from the five largest private hospitals in Thailand. These included information on country of origin, gender, age, arrival month, hospitalization, diagnosis, procedures, length of stay, medical expenditure and type of payment. Patient records were analysed to understand who travels and findings were triangulated with data from the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS).Results104,830 medical tourists visited these hospitals in Thailand in 2010. While patients originate all over the world, UK medical tourists represent the largest group amongst Europeans. The majority UK medical tourists (60%) have comparatively small, elective procedures, costing less than USD 500. A significant minority of patients travel for more serious orthopedic and cardiothoracic procedures. Data of individual patient records from Thailand shows a higher number of UK patients traveled to Thailand than indicated by the IPS.ConclusionsThailand is attracting a large number of medical tourists including larger numbers of UK patients than previously estimated. However, as many patients travel for comparatively minor procedures treatment may not be their primary motivation for travel. The small but significant proportion of older UK residents traveling for complex procedures may point to challenges within the NHS.

The serious shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in Thailand has made the Thai government tentatively propose a policy to extend the working life of Ministry of Public Health nurses. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of those RNs who intend to extend their working life and analyzed the associations between general characteristics, quality of work life, and job characteristics of the RNs and their intention to work past retirement age. This cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to April 2017. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed nationally to 3,629 RNs in the age group 55-59 years and working for the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Thailand. The response rate was 85.0% (3,092 RNs). Due to the small number of male participants (n=74), males were excluded from the study. The analysis was limited to the 3,018 participants who returned the questionnaire and met the inclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression were used for data analysis. Of the 3,018 participants, the proportion of RNs intending to extend their working life from 60 to 65 years was 30.5%. In the Service Department, the factors significantly associated with intention to extend working life were perceived good or very good health status, no shift work, monthly income more than 50,000 THB (1,595 USD), and having moderate or good working resources (p<0.01). In the four Academic Departments, perceived good or very good health status, monthly income more than 50,000 THB, family members not against the working life extension, and moderate or good working resources were the factors affecting intention to extend working life (p<0.01). This study indicated that understanding the various factors related to the intention to extend working life among RNs could lead to the design of appropriate programs to encourage them to continue working after the current retirement age.

BackgroundFor an effective health system, human resources for health (HRH) planning should be aligned with health system needs. To provide evidence-based information to support HRH plan and policy, we should develop strategies to quantify health workforce requirements and supply. The aim of this study is to project HRH requirements for the Thai health service system in 2026. HRH included in this study were doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians (MTs), physiotherapists (PTs), and Thai traditional medicine (TTM) practitioners.Methods and resultsThe study mainly relied on the secondary data in relation to service utilization and population projection together with expert opinions. Health demand method was employed to forecast the HRH requirements based on the forecasted service utilizations. The results were then converted into HRH requirements using the staffing norm and productivity. The HRH supply projection was based on the stock and flow approach in which current stock and the flow in and out were taken into account in the projection. The results showed that in 2026, nurses are likely to be in critical shortages. The supply of doctors, pharmacists, and PTs is likely to be surplus. The HRH requirements are likely to match with the supply in cases of dentists, MTs, and TTM practitioners.ConclusionIn 2026, the supply of key professionals is likely to be sufficient except nurses who will be in critical shortages. The health demand method, although facing some limitations, is useful to project HRH requirements in such a situation that people are accessible to health services and future service utilizations are closely linked to current utilization rates.

Background In order to analyse the institutional capacity for health workforce policy development and implementation in countries in the South-East Asia region, the WHO facilitated a cross-sectional analysis of functions performed, structure, personnel, management and information systems of human resources for health (HRH) units in Ministries of Health. Case presentation A self-assessment survey on the characteristics and roles of HRH units was administered to relevant Government officials; the responses were validated through face-to-face workshops and by the WHO staff. Findings were tabulated to produce frequency distributions of the variables examined, and qualitative elements categorized according to a framework for capacity building in the health sector. Ten countries out of the 11 in the region responded to the survey. Seven out of 10 reported having an HRH unit, though their scope, roles, capacity and size displayed considerable variability. Some functions (such as planning and health workforce data management) were reportedly carried out in all countries, while others (inter-sectoral coordination, research, labour relations) were only performed in few. Discussion and conclusions The strengthening of the HRH governance capacity in countries should follow a logical hierarchy, identifying first and foremost the essential functions that the public sector is expected to perform to optimize HRH governance. The definition of expected roles and functions will in turn allow identifying the upstream system-wide factors and the downstream capacity requirements for the strengthening of the HRH units. The focus should ultimately be on ensuring that all the key strategic functions are performed to quality standards, irrespective of institutional arrangements. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12960-019-0385-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The objective of this study is to predict the volume of the elderly in different health status categories in Thailand in the next ten years (2020–2030). Multistate modelling was performed. We defined four states of elderly patients (aged ≥ 60 years) according to four different levels of Activities of Daily Living (ADL): social group; home group; bedridden group; and dead group. The volume of newcomers was projected by trend extrapolation methods with exponential growth. The transition probabilities from one state to another was obtained by literature review and model optimization. The mortality rate was obtained by literature review. Sensitivity analysis was conducted. By 2030, the number of social, home, and bedridden groups was 15,593,054, 321,511, and 152,749, respectively. The model prediction error was 1.75%. Sensitivity analysis with the change of transition probabilities by 20% caused the number of bedridden patients to vary from between 150,249 and 155,596. In conclusion, the number of bedridden elders will reach 153,000 in the next decade (3 times larger than the status quo). Policy makers may consider using this finding as an input for future resource planning and allocation. Further studies should be conducted to identify the parameters that better reflect the transition of people from one health state to another.

Background Thailand is a rapidly aging society, which places high demand on home health care services for the elderly. The shortage of health care workforce in rural areas is a crucial obstacle to the delivery of adequate home health care services. The appropriate skill-mix between multidisciplinary health team and care givers (CGs) is an attractive solution for improving home health care services in rural Thailand. This study assessed the potential of trained CGs to provide home health care services and projected what the optimal mix for a multidisciplinary home health care team in rural Thailand would be in 2030. Methods Eleven pilot districts in Thailand were recruited for the study. Secondary data were collected along with surveys of home health care providers. A total of 130 care managers (nurses) and 351 care givers (CG) were recruited for the survey. Workload, skill-mix potential, and acceptance of care givers were assessed in the surveys. The results from secondary data and the survey were used to project the health workforce requirements in 2030. Results It is projected that in 2030 the number of elderly living in rural areas will be 7,156,700 (27% of the projected rural population). Of this, 20.3% will be home-bound, 1.1% will be bed-ridden and 1.6% will need rehabilitation. The main members of the multidisciplinary health workforce involved in home health care were nurses, doctors, and physiotherapists. The home health care services that were provided by the multidisciplinary health workforce included patient assessment, development of a care plan and case conference, home visits, and teaching and supervision of CGs. The CGs were village health volunteers trained to carry out regular home visits to patients. The CGs provided assistance with the activities of daily living, basic health services, moral support to patients and relatives, and surveillance of the home environment during home visits. CGs were well accepted by both the health professionals and the patients. Projections showed that 16,094 nurses, 1,542 doctors, 1,022 physiotherapists and 50,148 CGs will be required in 2030 to meet the needs of the dependent elderly for home health care in rural Thailand. Conclusion With the increased need for home health care services in the future, appropriate team work between the members of the multidisciplinary health team and the CGs in the community is the appropriate solution for likely shortages of health professional workforce.