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Published on February 7, 2008

The Public Health Ministry has called on medical schools across country to limit their student intake in specific fields to slow the brain drain from public hospitals, permanent-secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongvirot said yesterday.

Doctors seeking higher qualifications at home and abroad to cash in on the boom in foreign patients has led to a shortage of practitioners across country, he said.

The ministry had asked medical schools to cut by 20 per cent the number of doctors who want to study specific fields. The exceptions are areas such as anaesthesiology, pathology and psychiatry.

The shortage of practitioners has been a big issue for the public health service for several years.

According to a survey by the ministry, between 600 and 1,000 doctors a year resign from state hospitals. Most move to private hospitals, while the rest study for a higher degree.

The ministry wants to limit places in higher learning institution and collaborate with medical schools to produce more doctors to serve rural areas.

It will invite the two Mahidol University medical school faculties (Siriraj Hospital and Ramathibodi Hospital) and Chulalongkorn University to participate in the project, Prat said.

In the past, Thailand's medical schools had turned out about 1,400 graduates a year, but for the past two years the number had dropped to between 1,000 and 1,200. This is partly due to the many lawsuits against doctors in recent years. Prat said the ministry wanted medical schools to produce 3,600 to 4,200 students a year, which would be enough to solve the shortage.

"We will push this issue as a mega project to build up manpower for public health services across country, particularly for specialised physicians," he said.

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation