Alarm bells ring in overloaded Thai public health system as exhausted doctors quit in droves
AI In-Brief
Thailand News in Brief
Thai PBS World
Thailand and the world, every day
AI can make mistakes. Please double-check.
Alarm bells ring in overloaded Thai public health system as exhausted doctors quit in droves
13 Sept 13:57Key points summarised by AI
Thai public health doctors are resigning in significant numbers due to overwhelming workloads, low pay, and limited career advancement, severely straining the national healthcare system.
Medical professionals share harrowing experiences of 'slavery-like conditions,' including interns working excessive consecutive hours (up to 72) and performing critical surgeries without adequate senior supervision.
The system's overload is attributed to the universal healthcare scheme, a growing elderly population, new treatment demands, and decentralization issues causing patients to flock to larger hospitals.
The Public Health Ministry plans to address the crisis by increasing pay, improving welfare, offering better career prospects, reducing workloads, recruiting more doctors, and enhancing the distribution of medical staff, especially in rural provinces.
Thailand's Education Ministry is implementing a four-pronged strategy to address its students' below-average performance in PISA 2025 and tackle significant educational inequality.
The plan prioritizes closing performance gaps by increasing funding for small and low-income schools, overhauling the curriculum to foster critical thinking, and adopting a data-driven management system to reduce teacher workload.
Key initiatives include enhancing school safety, combating cyberbullying, and expanding mental health support through peer-to-peer networks, recognizing the severe impact of distress on academic performance.
An education expert advises verifying if PISA improvements stem from structural changes, advocating for a revived STEM curriculum with practical 'learn by doing' methods, and urging bureaucratic reform to link teacher evaluations to student development.