2. Overview of health care system in Thailand
Health services in Thailand are provided by the government, state enterprises, municipalities, and the
private sector. The government or public sector is the major health service provider in Thailand
(Sriratanaban, 2001), with the main responsibility falling on the MOPH. Health institutions governed by
MOPH consist of regional hospitals, general hospitals, community hospitals, specialized hospitals,
extended outpatient department (OPD) hospitals1, health centers, and community health centers. All
hospitals have full-time physicians. Health centers and community health centers are exclusively staffed
by part-time physicians. Regional and general hospitals play the key role in the provision of hospital
services in the provinces when taking into consideration the number of beds, physicians, nurses,
admissions, and surgical operations, which are generally higher than in community, specialized, and
extended OPD hospitals.
Although Thailand spent a large amount of resources on health care compared with other neighboring
countries, it still cannot achieve the same level of population’s health status compared with countries
with comparable or smaller health spending (Sriratanaban, 2001). MOPH is thus concerned about the
efficiency of public hospitals, and this provides the impetus for this study.