NONTHABURI, 7 June 2015 – The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) is set to extend local primary healthcare services of Family Doctors to serve all households nationwide within this year, said the Deputy Minister.
MOPH Deputy Minister, Somsak Chunharas, has revealed that the Family Doctor project is now comprised of 66,353 medical teams, 3,890 of which are the district level teams, 12,237 are subdistrict level teams, and 50,326 are the community level teams.
He has said that the current Family Doctor teams can now provide close care for only a quarter of the targeted 2 million patients nationwide, while the ministry is aiming to provide this service to all households in the country within this year.
Family Doctor teams have been established to provide medical care for patients with low or no mobility who rely on the help from others, such as elders, immovable patients, persons with disabilities, and patients in terminal stage.
Each team consists of about 10 medical personnel who provide medical service at patients’ homes regardless of their medical condition or disease stage. All households in this project will also have a 24-hour number to call their Family Doctor team in case of emergency.
Medical professionals participating in this project are doctors and staff from the local Subdistrict Health Promotion Hospitals, the local communities, District Public Health Offices, Community Hospitals, Central Hospitals, and general hospitals.
