Aphichet, a role model for others.

Dr Aphichet was a legend among Thailand's rural medical society.

He was better known as "Mo Muang Phrao" from his book "A Part of Life: Mo Muang Phrao", in which he told of his experiences working in Muang Phrao, a remote district in Chiang Mai province amid political tension three decades ago.

Aphichet served poor patients in Muang Phrao for three years after he graduated from Siriraj Hospital (now part of Mahidol University) in 1973.

He provided more than just healthcare services for villagers, helping them also to fight against unjustness in society - until he was intimidated by the powers-that-be and forced to return to the city a few years later.

Aphichet's book became popular and was made into a film, also called "Mo Muang Phrao", in 1979.

Doctors throughout the provinces are mourning the loss of a legend who inspired them to serve the poor in the country's remote areas.

Dr Supat Hasuwankij, secretary of the Rural Doctors Society and director of Chana Hospital in Songkhla, said: "His book 'Mo Muang Phrao' was an inspiration for us. He was a role model for a rural doctor who devoted his life to serve poor patients in remote areas. He showed us that the rural area was a place where we could better serve society."

Aphichet's letters from Muang Phrao, published by the Centre

of Universities' Students of Thailand, attracted many medi-cal students in 1970s to the dis-trict to learn from him and the

real situation in regard to the plight of the rural poor, said Dr Vichai Chokevivat, who was president of the Rural Doctors Society in 1981.

Born to a poor Chinese family in Bangkok, Dr Aphichet said he almost did not get a chance to study medicine in his childhood years because he had to earn some money while studying.

"He was the first medical doctor to expose the exploitative medical practices used on poor patients, such as unnecessary injection of pain killers," said Dr Kitipumi Chutasmit, director of Phusing Hospital in Si Sa Ket province.

Kitipumi, who was a first-year medical student in 1981, said colleagues of his generation admired and took "Mo Muang Phrao" as their role model.

Apichet also was the first doctor to initiate the idea for people to participate in healthcare services. Due to a shortage of medical staff, including nurses, Mo Muang Phrao trained youths in local communities to help take care of patients, Kitipumi said.

Apichet resigned as a government doctor after returning from Muang Phrao, but he continued to serve the poor at his private clinic in Bangkok's Klong Tan area.

The doctor, just 57 when he died, left behind his clinic, his wife Sinee, a Hong Kong nurse whom he met at a seminar on healthcare in Sri Lanka 26 years ago, and two children, Chalita and Charlie. His funeral rite will be held today at Wat Yang Luang Po To on Sukhumvit soi 77. The cremation is set for tomorrow at 4pm.

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

The Nation